Ambrosia 


Ambrosia 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


•  IWItl«a»ltl«H»IIIM»|||«H»lll«Mill|«M»l|iM«| 

HOME-LIFE- IN 
[COLONIAL-  DAYS 

i 

I  Written  by 

•ALICEMORSEEARLE- 

in  the  year 

MDCCCXCVIII 


I 


I 


! 

5 

]     Illustrated  by  Photographs, 

!     Gathered  by  the  Author, 

of 

Real  Things, Works  and 
|     Happenings  of  Olden  Times. 

i 

•l«W(t!flM»ltlMWIt!«^l*i<MHi!tl«M»l*l«iM»ll!MI 

INewYorK 
The  Macmilian  Company 

London:  Macmilian  K  Co., Ltd. 

189S 
All  rights  reserved. 


i«i«H»i0i«n»i*i    1,1—1 


Copyright,  1898, 
By  The  Macmillan  Company. 


Norwood  Press 
S.  Cushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  BEGUN 
AS  IT  IS  ENDED 
IN  MEMORY  OF  MT  MOTHER 


Foreword 


The  illustrations  for  this  book  are  in  every  case 
from  real  articles  and  scenes,  usually  from  those  still 
in  existence  —  rare  relics  of  past  days.  The  pictures 
are  the  symbols  of  years  of  careful  search,  patient  in- 
vestigation^ and  constant  watchfulness.  Many  a  curi- 
ous article  as  nameless  and  incomprehensible  as  the 
totem  of  an  extinct  Indian  tribe  has  been  studied,  com- 
pared^ inquired  and  written  about ;  and  finally  trium- 
phantly named  and  placed  in  the  list  of  obsolete  domestic 
appurtenances.  From  the  lofts  of  woodsheds,  under 
attic  eaves,  in  dairy  cellars,  out  of  old  trunks  and  sea- 
chests  from  mouldering  warehouses,  have  strangely 
shaped  bits  and  combinations  of  wood,  stuff,  and  metal 
been  rescued  and  recognized.  The  treasure  stores  of 
Deerfeld  Memorial  Hall,  of  the  Bostonian  Society,  of 
the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  and  many  State 
Historical  Societies  have  been  freely  searched ;  and  to 
the  officers  of  these  societies  I  give  cordial  thanks  for 
their  cooperation  and  assistance  in  my  work. 

The  artistic  and  correct  photographic  representation 
of  many  of  these  objects  I  owe  to  Mr.  William  F. 

I 


Vlll 


Foreword 


Halliday  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  Mr.  George  F. 
Cook  of  Richmond,  Virginia ,  and  the  Misses  Allen  of 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts.  To  many  friends,  and  many 
strangers,  who  have  secured  for  me  single  articles  or 
single  photographs,  I  here  repeat  the  thanks  already 
given  for  their  kindness. 

There  were  two  constant  obstacles  in  the  path :  An 
article  would  be  found  and  a  name  given  by  old-time 
country  folk,  but  no  dictionary  contained  the  word,  no 
printed  description  of  its  use  or  purpose  could  be  ob- 
tained, though  a  century  ago  it  was  in  every  household. 
Again,  some  curiously  shaped  utensil  or  tool  might  be 
displayed  and  its  use  indicated;  but  it  was  nameless, 
and  it  took  long  inquiry  and  deduction,  —  the  faculty 
of  ?  taking  a  hint,"  — to  christen  it.  It  is  plain  that 
different  vocations  and  occupations  had  not  only  imple- 
ments but  a  vocabulary  of  their  own,  and  all  have 
become  almost  obsolete ;  to  the  various  terms,  phrases, 
and  names,  once  in  general  application  and  use  in  spin- 
ning, weaving,  and  kindred  occupations,  and  now  half 
forgotten,  might  be  given  the  descriptive  title,  a  "home- 
spun vocabulary!'  By  definite  explanation  of  these 
terms  many  a  good  old  English  word  and  phrase  has 
been  rescued  from  disuse. 

ALICE  MORSE  EARLE. 


Contents 


Page 

I.  Homes  of  the  Colonists  i 

II.  The  Light  of  Other  Days         .        .  .  •  32 

III.  The  Kitchen  Fireside       .        .        .  .  .52 

IV.  The  Serving  of  Meals      .        .        .  76 
V.  Food  from  Forest  and  Sea         .        .  .  .108 

VI.  Indian  Corn  .        .        .        .        .  .  1 26 

VII.  Meat  and  Drink     .        .        .        .  .  .142 

VIII.  Flax  Culture  and  Spinning         .        .  .  .166 

IX.  Wool  Culture  and  Spinning,  with  a  Postscript  on 

Cotton    .        .        .        .        .  .  .187 

X.  Hand- Weaving       .        .        .        .  .  212 

XI.  Girls'  Occupations  .        .        .        .  .  .252 

XII.  Dress  of  the  Colonists      .        .        .  .  .281 

XIII.  Jack-knife  Industries         .....  300 

XIV.  Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  .  .  •  325 
XV.  Sundav  in  the  Colonies     .        .        .  .  3^4 

XVI.  Colonial  Neighborliness    .        .        .  .  •     3 88 

XVII.  Old-time  Flower  Gardens         .        *  .  .421 

ix 


List  of  Illustrations 


Page 

Log  Cabin         ........  4 

Suydam  House,  Bushwick,  Long  Island,  1 700  ...  7 
Sabin  Hall,  Virginia    .        .        .        .        .        .  .13 

Slave  Quarters,  Upper  Brandon      .        .        .        .  .14 

Fire-buckets       .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .16 

Fireman's  Certificate,  1800  .        .        .        .        .  .17 

First  Fire  Engine  in  Brooklyn,  1785       ,        .        .        .  18 
White-Ellery  House,  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  1707       .  20 
Boardman-Hill  House,  North  Saugus,  Massachusetts,  1650  21 
Birthplace  of  John  Adams  and  John  Quincy  Adams    .        .  22 
Fairbanks  House,  Dedham,  Massachusetts,  1636       .        .  22 
Pierce  Garrison  House  ......  26 

Knocker  from  John  Hancock  House        .        .        .  .28 

Knocker  from  Winslow  House,  Marshfield,  Massachusetts  .  29 
King-Hooper  House,  Dan  vers,  Massachusetts  .        .  .30 
Candle-dipping  .        .        .        .  '  .        .  .36 

Candle-moulds   .        .        .        .        .        .        .        •  37 

Hanging  Candle-box  .        .        .        .        •        .  -3% 

Silver  Snuffers  and  Tray       .        .        .        .        .  .43 

Betty-lamps  44 
BulPs-eye  Lamp  •        •        •  45 

Old  Pewter  Lamps  •        -  4° 

xi 


Xll 


List  of  Illustrations 


Page 

Old  Glass  Lamps  ......  47 

Tinder-box  48 
Tinder- wheel,  Flint,  and  Tinder   .....  49 

Fireplace  of  Slave-kitchen     .        .        .        .        .  .54 

Iron  Potato-boiler       .        .        .        .        .        .  -57 

Old  Tin  Ware  58 

Iron  Skillet,  Rabbit-broiler,  and  Brazier  .        .        .  59 
Toasting-forks    .........  60 

Waffle-irons       .        .        .        .        .        .        .  ,61 

Old  Gridirons    .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .61 

Plate- warmer      .        .        .        .        .        .  .  63 

Bake-kettle,  Clock-jack,  Dutch-oven,  and  Dye-tub    .        .  64 
Roasting-kitchens        .......  66 

Smoking-tongs    ........  69 

Warming-pan     .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .72 

Kitchen  Fireplace  of  Whittier's  Home     .        .        .  .74 

Harvard  Standing  Salt  .        .        .        .        .        .  .78 

Wooden  Trenchers,  Spoons,  Noggin,  Caster,  and  Dishes    .  82 
Wooden  Tankard       ;        .        .        .        .        .  .83 

Carved  Wooden  Tankard     .        .        .        .        .  .84 

"  The  porringers  that  in  a  row 

Hung  high  and  made  a  glittering  show  "       .        .        .  86 
Pewter  Spoon  and  Spoon-mould     .        .        .        .  .88 

Five  Types  of  Spoons  .        .        .        .        .        .  .89 

Dutch  Silver  Tankard  .        .        .        .        .        .  .91 

Colonial  Glass  Bottles  .        .        .        .        .        .  93 

Old  Spanish  and  English  Glasses,  Iron  Loggerheads,  and 

Wooden  Toddy-sticks  ......  94 


List  of  Illustrations  xiii 

Page 

Blackjacks        .        .        .        .        ,        #        c  •  95 

Silver-mounted  Cocoanut  Drinking-cup    •        •        .  .  97 

Winthrop  Jug                                                      .  .98 

Georgius  Rex  Jug                               r       .        .  ...  99 

Maple-sugar  Camp      a        .        .        .        e        #  .114 

John  Winthrop' s  Mill   °  *33 

Old-time  Corn-sheller          .        .        .        .        ,  .140 

Making  Thanksgiving  Pies    .        .        .        .        ,  .146 

Upright  Churns  .        ,        .        .        .        .        ,  .149 

Revolving  Churn        .        .        .        .        .        .  .     1 50 

Cheese-basket,  Cheese-ladder,  Cheese-press     .        .  .151 

Sausage-gun       .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .154 

Sugar-cutters      .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .156 

Spice-mortars  and  Spice-mill .        .        .        .        .  .157 

Old  Cider-mill  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .162 

Flax-brake         .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .170 

Swingling-block  and  Swingling-knives      .        .        .  .171 

Flax,  Flax-basket,  Flax-hetchels     .        .        .        .  173 

Clock-reel         .        .        .        •                .        .  .174 

Flax-spinning     .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .186 

Carding  Wool    .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .195 

Wool-spinning   .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .197 

Triple  Reel  199 

"  Niddy-noddy,  two  heads  and  one  body  "  .  .  .201 
Wool-cards        ........  204 

Swifts  215 

Skarne      .        .        .        .        .        .        °        »  .217 

Slev  o        o        .  .220 


XIV 


List  of  Illustrations 


Page 

Loom- temples    .        „        .        .        .        .        .  .223 

Loom-shuttles    .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .225 

Tape-loom         .        .        .        .        „  .  .226 

Silk  Braid-  loom  .        .        .        .        .        .  .226 

Quilling-wheels  .        .        .        .        .        .  .229 

Loom-basket  and  Bobbins     .        .        .        .        .  .233 

Garter-loom       .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .236 

Weaving  Rag  Carpet  .        .        .        .        .        .  .238 

Hand  Stamps  for  Calico  Printing    .        .        .        .  .240 

Orange  Peel,  Blazing  Star,  Chariot  Wheels  and  Church 

Windows,  Bachelor's  Fancy   .....  243 

Hand-woven  Bed  Coverlet   ......  245 

Making  Soap      .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .254 

Goose  Basket     .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .258 

Knitted  Bags      ........  264 

Fleetwood-Quincy  Sampler  .  266 
Embroidered  Coat  of  Arms  ......  266 

Colonial  Embroidery,  Old  South  Church,  Boston      .  .268 
Net  Footing  and  Lace  .        .        .        .        .        .  .270 

Collars,  Caps,  Laces,  and  "Modesty-piece"  .        .  .271 
Cut-paper  Picture        .        .        .        .        .        .  .279 

Eighteenth- century  Stays      .        .        .        .        .  .286 

Child's  Suit  worn  in  1784    ......  288 

Calash,  1780  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  289 

Pumpkin  Hood,  1800  .        .        .        .        .  .291 

Colonial  Pattens  .        .        .        „        »        .  .295 

Eighteenth-century  Spectacles  .  „  „  .  .298 
Birch  Splint  Broom     .        .        a        0        c        .  .304 


List  of  Illustrations 


xv 


l-age 

Barlow  Jack-knives  307 

Old  Gourd  Dishes      .  ,.rn 

Goose-yoke  and  Pig-yoke     .        .        .        B        .  .310 

Mayflower    Scythe-snathe,    Pitchfork,    Scythe,    Flail  and 

Swingle,  and  Bill-hook  .        .        .        .        .  .313 

Old-time  Axes  and  Riven  Laths    .        .        .        .  .314 

Indian  Knot-bowls  and  Mortar      .        .        .        .  .319 

A  Gundalow  at  the  Landing          .        .        .        ,  .328 

Wire  Ferry  on  the  Connecticut      .        .        .        .  .330 

Conestoga  Wagon       .        .        .        .        .        o  .340 

"  American  Stage-wagon,"  1795  .        .        .        .  .343 

Wayside  Inn,  Sudbury,  Massachusetts     .        .        .  .345 

Old  Pigskin  and  Deerskin  Travelling-trunks      .        .  .347 

Old-time  Bandboxes    .        .        .        .        .        .  .348 

Wolfe  Tavern,  Newburyport,  Massachusetts    .        .  .350 

Old-time  Rocky  Mountain  Mail-coach    .        .        .  .352 

Brother  Jonathan's  Chaise     .        .        .        .        .  .352 

Campbell  Coach         .        .        .        .        .        .  .354 

Dutch  Sleigh  in  New  York  .        .        .        .        .  •  355 

Tap-room  and  Bar,  Wayside  Inn   .        .        .        .  358 

Swing-sign  from  Grosvenor  Inn,  Pomfret,  Connecticut  .  358 
Sign-board,  John  Nash's  Tavern,  Amherst,  Massachusetts   .  360 

The  "Old  Ship,"  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  1680   .  .  365 
The  Old  South  Church,  Boston     .....  366 

Rocky  Hill  Meeting-house,  Salisbury,  Massachusetts,  1785  370 

Plan  for  Seating  the  Meeting-house         .        .        .  371 

Foot-stove         .        .        .        .        .        .        .  375 

Bass-viol,  Psalm-book,  and  Pitch-pipe     .        .        .  •  377 


XVI 


List  of  Illustrations 


Page 

Pages  of  Old  Psalm-book  printed  in  Boston,  1690 

•  378 

Bruton  Parish  Church,  Williamsburgh,  Virginia 

.  381 

Pohick  Church,  Mount  Vernon,  Virginia 

•  383 

Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Bushwick,  Long  Island 

.  386 

Starting  to  break  out  the  Roads 

41  2 

A  Chebobbin  ...... 

416 

Crown  Imperial  ..... 

.  425 

Flower  Garden,  Mount  Vernon 

.  432 

Abigail  Adams'  Garden,  Quincy,  Massachusetts 

•  435 

Old  Garden,  Ellenville,  New  York 

•  44° 

Old  Well-sweep  ..... 

•  444 

Fraxinella  ...... 

.  449 

Ambrosia  ....... 

.  End-papers 

Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


CHAPTER  I 

HOMES   OF  THE  COLONISTS 

WHEN  the  first  settlers  landed  on  Ameri- 
can shores,  the  difficulties  in  finding  or 
making  shelter  must  have  seemed  ironi- 
cal as  well  as  almost  unbearable.  The  colonists 
found  a  land  magnificent  with  forest  trees  of  every 
size  and  variety,  but  they  had  no  sawmills,  and  few 
saws  to  cut  boards  ;  there  was  plenty  of  clay  and 
ample  limestone  on  every  side,  yet  they  could  have 
no  brick  and  no  mortar  ;  grand  boulders  of  granite 
and  rock  were  everywhere,  yet  there  was  not  a 
single  facility  for  cutting,  drawing,  or  using  stone. 
These  homeless  men,  so  sorely  in  need  of  immedi- 
ate shelter,  were  baffled  by  pioneer  conditions,  and 
had  to  turn  to  many  poor  expedients,  and  be  satis- 
fied with  rude  covering.  In  Pennsylvania,  New 
York,  ^Massachusetts,  and,  possibly,  other  states, 
some  reverted  to  an  ancient  form  of  shelter :  they 
became  cave-dwellers  ;  caves  were  dug  in  the  side 

B  I 


1  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


of  a  hill,  and  lived  in  till  the  settlers  could  have 
time  to  chop  down  and  cut  up  trees  for  log  houses. 
Cornelis  Van  Tienhoven,  Secretary  of  the  Province 
of  New  Netherland,  gives  a  description  of  these 
cave-dwellings,  and  says  that  "the  wealthy  and 
principal  men  in  New  England  lived  in  this  fashion 
for  two  reasons  :  first,  not  to  waste  time  building ; 
second,  not  to  discourage  poorer  laboring  people." 
It  is  to  be  doubted  whether  wealthy  men  ever  lived 
in  them  in  New  England,  but  Johnson,  in  his  Won- 
der-working Providence^  written  in  1645,  tells  of  the 
occasional  use  of  these  "  smoaky  homes.,,  They 
were  speedily  abandoned,  and  no  records  remain  of 
permanent  cave-homes  in  New  England.  In  Penn- 
sylvania caves  were  used  by  newcomers  as  homes 
for  a  long  time,  certainly  half  a  century.  They 
generally  were  formed  by  digging  into  the  ground 
about  four  feet  in  depth  on  the  banks  or  low  cliffs 
near  the  river  front.  The  walls  were  then  built  up 
of  sods  or  earth  laid  on  poles  or  brush  ;  thus  half 
only  of  the  chamber  was  really  under  ground.  If 
dug  into  a  side  hill,  the  earth  formed  at  least  two 
walls.  The  roofs  were  layers  of  tree  limbs  covered 
over  with  sod,  or  bark,  or  rushes  and  bark.  The 
chimneys  were  laid  of  cobblestone  or  sticks  of 
wood  mortared  with  clay  and  grass.  The  settlers 
were  thankful  even  for  these  poor  shelters,  and 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


3 


declared  that  they  found  them  comfortable.  By 
1685  many  families  were  still  living  in  caves  in 
Pennsylvania,  for  the  Governors  Council  then 
ordered  the  caves  to  be  destroyed  and  filled  in. 
Sometimes  the  settler  used  the  cave  for  a  cellar  for 
the  wooden  house  which  he  built  over  it. 

These  cave-dwellings  were  perhaps  the  poorest 
houses  ever  known  by  any  Americans,  yet  pioneers, 
or  poor,  or  degraded  folk  have  used  them  for  homes 
in  America  until  far  more  recent  days.  In  one  of 
these  miserable  habitations  of  earth  and  sod  in  the 
town  of  Rutland,  Massachusetts,  were  passed  some 
of  the  early  years  of  the  girlhood  of  Madame  Jumel, 
whose  beautiful  house  on  Washington  Heights,  New 
York,  still  stands  to  show  the  contrasts  that  can  come 
in  a  single  life. 

The  homes  of  the  Indians  were  copied  by  the 
English,  being  ready  adaptations  of  natural  and 
plentiful  resources.  Wigwams  in  the  South  were 
of  plaited  rush  or  grass  mats ;  of  deerskins  pinned 
on  a  frame  ;  of  tree  boughs  rudely  piled  into  a  cover, 
and  in  the  far  South,  of  layers  of  palmetto  leaves. 
In  the  mild  climate  of  the  Middle  and  Southern 
states  a  "  half-faced  camp,"  of  the  Indian  form,  with 
one  open  side,  which  served  for  windows  and  door, 
and  where  the  fire  was  built,  made  a  good  temporary 
home.    In  such  for  a  time,  in  his  youth,  lived  Abra- 


4  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


ham  Lincoln.  Bark  wigwams  were  the  most  easily 
made  of  all ;  they  could  be  quickly  pinned  together 
on  a  light  frame.  In  1626  there  were  thirty  home- 
buildings  of  Europeans  on  the  island  of  Manhattan, 
now  New  York,  and  all  but  one  of  them  were  of  bark. 

Though  the  settler  had  no  sawmills,  brick  kilns, 
or  stone-cutters,  he  had  one  noble  friend,  —  a  firm 


Log  Cabin 


rock  to  stand  upon,  —  his  broad-axe.  With  his  axe, 
and  his  own  strong  and  willing  arms,  he  could  take 
a  long  step  in  advance  in  architecture;  he  could  build 
a  log  cabin.    These  good,  comfortable,  and  sub- 


H  omes  of  the  Colonists 


5 


stantial  houses  have  ever  been  built  by  American 
pioneers,  not  only  in  colonial  days,  but  in  our 
Western  and  Southern  states  to  the  present  time. 
A  typical  one  like  many  now  standing  and  occupied 
in  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina  is  here  shown. 
Round  logs  were  halved  together  at  the  corners,  and 
roofed  with  logs,  or  with  bark  and  thatch  on  poles  ; 
this  made  a  comfortable  shelter,  especially  when 
the  cracks  between  the  logs  were  "  chinked "  with 
wedges  of  wood,  and  "daubed"  with  clay.  Many 
cabins  had  at  first  no  chinking  or  daubing;  one 
settler  while  sleeping  was  scratched  on  the  head  by 
the  sharp  teeth  of  a  hungry  wolf,  who  thrust  his 
nose  into  the  space  between  the  logs  of  the  cabin. 
Doors  were  hung  on  wooden  hinges  or  straps  of 
hide. 

A  favorite  form  of  a  log  house  for  a  settler  to 
build  in  his  first  "cut  down"  in  the  virgin  forest, 
was  to  dig  a  square  trench  about  two  feet  deep,  of 
dimensions  as  large  as  he  wished  the  ground  floor 
of  his  house,  then  to  set  upright  all  around  this 
trench  (leaving  a  space  for  a  fireplace,  window,  and 
door),  a  closely  placed  row  of  logs  all  the  same 
length,  usually  fourteen  feet  long  for  a  single  story  ; 
if  there  was  a  loft,  eighteen  feet  long.  The  earth 
was  filled  in  solidly  around  these  logs,  and  kept 
them  firmly  upright ;  a  horizontal  band  of  punch- 


6  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


eons,  which  were  split  logs  smoothed  off  on  the  face 
with  the  axe,  was  sometimes  pinned  around  within 
the  log  walls,  to  keep  them  from  caving  in.  Over 
this  was  placed  a  bark  roof,  made  of  squares  of 
chestnut  bark,  or  shingles  of  overlapping  birch- 
bark.  A  bark  or  log  shutter  was  hung  at  the 
window,  and  a  bark  door  hung  on  withe  hinges,  or, 
if  very  luxurious,  on  leather  straps,  completed  the 
quickly  made  home.  This  was  called  rolling-up 
a  house,  and  the  house  was  called  a  puncheon  and 
bark  house.  A  rough  puncheon  floor,  hewed  flat 
with  an  axe  or  adze,  was  truly  a  luxury.  One 
settler's  wife  pleaded  that  the  house  might  be 
rolled  up  around  a  splendid  flat  stump ;  thus 
she  had  a  good,  firm  table.  A  small  platform 
placed  about  two  feet  high  alongside  one  wall,  and 
supported  at  the  outer  edge  with  strong  posts, 
formed  a  bedstead.  Sometimes  hemlock  boughs 
were  the  only  bed.  The  frontier  saying  was,  "  A 
hard  day's  work  makes  a  soft  bed."  The  tired 
pioneers  slept  well  even  on  hemlock  boughs.  The 
chinks  of  the  logs  were  filled  with  moss  and  mud, 
and  in  the  autumn  banked  up  outside  with  earth  for 
warmth. 

These  log  houses  did  not  satisfy  English  men 
and  women.  They  longed  to  have  what  Roger 
Williams  called  English  houses,  which  were,  how- 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


7 


ever,  scarcely  different  in  ground-plan.  A  single 
room  on  the  ground,  called  in  many  old  wills  the 
fire-room,  had  a  vast  chimney  at  one  end.  A 
so-called  staircase,  usually  but  a  narrow  ladder,  led 
to  a  sleeping-loft  above.  Some  of  those  houses 
were  still  made  of  whole  logs,  but  with  clapboards 
nailed  over  the  chinks  and  cracks.  Others  were  of 
a  lighter  frame  covered  with  clapboards,  or  in  Dela- 
ware with  boards  pinned  on  perpendicularly.  Soon 
this  house  was  doubled  in  size  and  comfort  by  hav- 
ing a  room  on  either  side  of  the  chimney. 

Each  settlement  often  followed  in  general  outline 
as  well  as  detail  the  houses  to  which  the  owners  had 
become  accustomed  in  Europe,  with,  of  course,  such 
variations  as  were  necessary  from  the  new  surround- 
ings, new  climate,  and  new  limitations.  New  York 
was  settled  by  the  Dutch,  and  therefore  naturally 
the  first  permanent  houses  were  Dutch  in  shape, 
such  as  may  be  seen  in  Holland  to-day.  In  the 
large  towns  in  New  Netherland  the  houses  were 
certainly  very  pretty,  as  all  visitors  stated  who  wrote 
accounts  at  that  day.  Madam  Knights  visited  New 
York  in  1704,  and  wrote  of  the  houses, —  I  will  give 
her  own  words,  in  her  own  spelling  and  grammar, 
which  were  not  very  good,  though  she  was  the 
teacher  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  the  friend  of 
Cotton  Mather :  — 


8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Suydam  House,  Bushwick,  Long  Island,  1700.     From  an  old  print 


"  The  Buildings  are  Brick  Generaly  very  stately  and 
high :  the  Bricks  in  some  of  the  houses  are  of  divers 
Coullers,  and  laid  in  Checkers,  being  glazed,  look  very 
agreable.  The  inside  of  the  houses  is  neat  to  admiration, 
the  wooden  work  ;  for  only  the  walls  are  plaster'd ;  and 
the  Sumers  and  Gist  are  planed  and  kept  very  white  scour'd 
as  so  is  all  the  partitions  if  made  of  Bords." 

The  "  sumers  and  gist  "  were  the  heavy  timbers 
of  the  frame,  the  summer-pieces  and  joists.  The 
summer-piece  was  the  large  middle  beam  in  the 
middle  from  end  to  end  of  the  ceiling ;  the  joists 
were  cross-beams.  These  were  not  covered  with 
plaster  as  nowadays,  but  showed  in  every  ceiling; 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


9 


and  in  old  houses  are  sometimes  set  so  curiously 
and  fitted  so  ingeniously,  that  they  are  always  an 
entertaining  study.  Another  traveller  says  that 
New  York  houses  had  patterns  of  colored  brick  set 
in  the  front,  and  also  bore  the  date  of  building. 
The  Governor's  house  at  Albany  had  two  black 
brick-hearts.  Dutch  houses  were  set  close  to  the 
sidewalk  with  the  gable-end  to  the  street ;  and  had 
the  roof  notched  like  steps,  —  corbel-roof  was  the 
name ;  and  these  ends  were  often  of  brick,  while  the 
rest  of  the  walls  were  of  wood.  The  roofs  were  high 
in  proportion  to  the  side  walls,  and  hence  steep ; 
they  were  surmounted  usually  in  Holland  fashion 
with  weather-vanes  in  the  shape  of  horses,  lions, 
geese,  sloops,  or  fish  ;  a  rooster  was  a  favorite  Dutch 
weather-vane.  There  were  metal  gutters  sticking 
out  from  every  roof  almost  to  the  middle  of  the 
street ;  this  was  most  annoying  to  passers-by  in 
rainy  weather,  who  were  deluged  with  water  from 
the  roofs.  The  cellar  windows  had  small  loop-holes 
with  shutters.  The  windows  were  always  small ; 
some  had  only  sliding  shutters,  others  had  but  two 
panes  or  quarels  of  glass,  as  they  were  called, 
which  were  only  six  or  eight  inches  square.  The 
front  doors  were  cut  across  horizontally  in  the  mid- 
dle into  two  parts,  and  in  early  days  were  hung  on 
leather  hinges  instead  of  irom 


IO 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


In  the  upper  half  of  the  door  were  two  round 
bull's-eyes  of  heavy  greenish  glass,  which  let  faint 
rays  of  light  enter  the  hall.  The  door  opened  with 
a  latch,  and  often  had  also  a  knocker.  Every  house 
had  a  porch  or  "  stoep "  flanked  with  benches, 
which  were  constantly  occupied  in  the  summer 
time ;  and  every  evening,  in  city  and  village  alike, 
an  incessant  visiting  was  kept  up  from  stoop 
to  stoop.  The  Dutch  farmhouses  were  a  single 
straight  story,  with  two  more  stories  in  the  high, 
in-curving  roof.  They  had  doors  and  stoops  like 
the  town  houses,  and  all  the  windows  had  heavy 
board  shutters.  The  cellar  and  the  garret  were  the 
most  useful  rooms  in  the  house ;  they  were  store- 
rooms for  all  kinds  of  substantial  food.  In  the 
cellar  were  great  bins  of  apples,  potatoes,  turnips, 
beets,  and  parsnips.  There  were  hogsheads  of 
corned  beef,  barrels  of  salt  pork,  tubs  of  hams 
being  salted  in  brine,  tonnekens  of  salt  shad  and 
mackerel,  firkins  of  butter,  kegs  of  pigs'  feet,  tubs 
of  souse,  kilderkins  of  lard.  On  a  long  swing-shelf 
were  tumblers  of  spiced  fruits,  and  "  rolliches,,, 
head-cheese,  and  strings  of  sausages  —  all  Dutch 
delicacies. 

In  strong  racks  were  barrels  of  cider  and  vinegar, 
and  often  of  beer.  Many  contained  barrels  of  rum 
and  a  pipe  of  Madeira.     What  a  storehouse  of 


Homes  of  the  Colonists  n 

plenty  and  thrift !  What  an  emblem  of  Dutch 
character!  In  the  attic  by  the  chimney  was  the 
smoke-house,  filled  with  hams,  bacon,  smoked  beef, 
and  sausages. 

In  Virginia  and  Maryland,  where  people  did  not 
gather  into  towns,  but  built  their  houses  farther 
apart,  there  were  at  first  few  sawmills,  and  the 
houses  were  universally  built  of  undressed  logs. 
Nails  were  costly,  as  were  all  articles  manufactured 
of  iron,  hence  many  houses  were  built  without  iron; 
wooden  pins  and  pegs  were  driven  in  holes  cut  to 
receive  them ;  hinges  were  of  leather ;  the  shingles 
on  the  roof  were  sometimes  pinned,  or  were  held  in 
place  by  "  weight-timbers."  The  doors  had  latches 
with  strings  hanging  outside ;  by  pulling  in  the 
string  within-doors  the  house  was  securely  locked. 
This  form  of  latch  was  used  in  all  the  colonies. 
When  persons  were  leaving  houses,  they  sometimes 
set  them  on  fire  in  order  to  gather  up  the  nails 
from  the  ashes.  To  prevent  this  destruction  of 
buildings,  the  government  of  Virginia  gave  to  each 
planter  who  was  leaving  his  house  as  many  nails  as 
the  house  was  estimated  to  have  in  its  frame,  pro- 
vided the  owner  would  not  burn  the  house  down. 

Some  years  later,  when  boards  could  be  readily 
obtained,  the  favorite  dwelling-place  in  the  South 
was  a  framed  building  with  a  great  stone  or  log-and- 


12 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


clay  chimney  at  either  end.  The  house  was  usually 
set  on  sills  resting  on  the  ground.  The  partitions 
were  sometimes  covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  mud 
which  dried  into  a  sort  of  plaster  and  was  white- 
washed. The  roofs  were  covered  with  cypress 
shingles. 

Hammond  wrote  of  these  houses  in  1656,  in  his 
Leah  and  Rachel^  "  Pleasant  in  their  building,  and 
contrived  delightfull  ;  the  rooms  large,  daubed  and 
whitelimed,  glazed  and  flowered  ;  and  if  not  glazed 
windows,  shutters  made  pretty  and  convenient/' 

When  prosperity  and  wealth  came  through  the 
speedily  profitable  crops  of  tobacco,  the  houses  im- 
proved. The  home-lot  or  yard  of  the  Southern 
planters  showed  a  pleasant  group  of  buildings,  which 
would  seem  the  most  cheerful  home  of  the  colonies, 
only  that  all  dearly  earned  homes  are  cheerful  to 
their  owners.  There  was  not  only  the  spacious 
mansion  house  for  the  planter  with  its  pleasant 
porch,  but  separate  buildings  in  which  were  a 
kitchen,  cabins  for  the  negro  servants  and  the  over- 
seer, a  stable,  barn,  coach-house,  hen-house,  smoke- 
house, dove-cote,  and  milk-room.  In  many  yards 
a  tall  pole  with  a  toy  house  at  top  was  erected ;  in 
this  bird-house  bee-martins  built  their  nests,  and  by 
bravely  disconcerting  the  attacks  of  hawks  and 
crows,  and  noisily  notifying  the  family  and  servants 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


J3 


of  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  thus  served  as  a 
guardian  for  the  domestic  poultry,  whose  home 
stood  close  under  this  protection.  There  was  sel- 
dom an  ice-house.  The  only  means  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  meats  in  hot  weather  was  by  water 
constantly  pouring  into  and  through  a  box  house 
erected  over  the  spring  that  flowed  near  the  house. 
Sometimes  a  brew-house  was  also  found  in  the  yard, 
for  making  home-brewed  beer,  and  a  tool-house  for 
storing  tools  and  farm  implements.  Some  farms 
had  a  cider-mill,  but  this  was  not  in  the  house  yard. 
Often  there  was  a  spinning-house  where  servants 
could  spin  flax  and  wool.  This  usually  had  one 
room  containing  a  hand-loom  on  which  coarse  bag- 


Sabin  Hall 


/ 

14  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Slave  Quarters,  Upper  Brandon 


ging  could  be  woven,  and  homespun  for  the  use  of 
the  negroes.  A  very  beautiful  example  of  a  splendid 
and  comfortable  Southern  mansion  such  as  was  built 
by  wealthy  planters  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  has  been  preserved  for  us  at  Mount  Ver- 
non, the  home  of  George  Washington. 

Mount  Vernon  was  not  so  fine  nor  so  costly  a 
house  as  many  others  built  earlier  in  the  century, 
such  as  Lower  Brandon  —  two  centuries  and  a  half 
old  —  and  Upper  Brandon,  the  homes  of  the  Har- 
risons ;  Westover,  the  home  of  the  Byrds  ;  Shirley, 
built  in  1650,  the  home  of  the  Carters;  Sabin  Hall, 
another  Carter  home,  is  still  standing  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock with  its  various  and  many  quarters  and 


Homes  of  the  Colonists  15 

outbuildings,  and  is  a  splendid  example  of  colonial 
architecture. 

As  the  traveller  came  north  from  Virginia  through 
Pennsylvania,  "the  Jerseys/'  and  Delaware,  the 
negro  cabins  and  detached  kitchen  disappeared,  and 
many  of  the  houses  were  of  stone  and  mortar.  A 
clay  oven  stood  by  each  house.  In  the  cities  stone 
and  brick  were  much  used,  and  by  1700  nearly  all 
Philadelphia  houses  had  balconies  running  the  entire 
length  of  the  second  story.  The  stoop  before  the 
door  was  universal. 

For  half  a  century  nearly  all  New  England  houses 
were  cottages.  Many  had  thatched  roofs:  Seaside 
towns  set  aside  for  public  use  certain  reedy  lots  be- 
tween salt-marsh  and  low-water  mark,  where  thatch 
could  be  freely  cut.  The  catted  chimneys  were  of 
logs  plastered  with  clay,  or  platted,  that  is,  made  of 
reeds  and  mortar;  and  as  wood  and  hay  were 
stacked  in  the  streets,  all  the  early  towns  suffered 
much  from  fires,  and  soon  laws  were  passed  for- 
bidding the  building  of  these  unsafe  chimneys  ;  as 
brick  was  imported  and  made,  and  stone  was  quar- 
ried, there  was  certainly  no  need  to  use  such  danger- 
filled  materials.  Fire-wardens  were  appointed  who 
peered  around  in  all  the  kitchens,  hunting  for  what 
they  called  foul  chimney  hearts,  and  they  ordered 
flag-roofs  and  wooden  chimneys  to  be  removed,  and 


16  H  ome  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


replaced  with  stone  or  brick  ones.  In  Boston  every 
housekeeper  had  to  own  a  fire-ladder ;  and  ladders 
and  buckets  were  kept  in  the  church.  Salem  kept 
its  "  fire-buckets  and  hook'd  poles  "  in  the  town- 
house.  Soon  in  all  towns  each  family  owned  fire- 
buckets  made  of  heavy 
leather  and  marked 
with  the  owner's  name 
or  initials.  The  entire 
town  constituted  the 
fire  company,  and  the 
method  of  using  the 
fire-buckets  was  this. 
As  soon  as  an  alarm 
of  fire  was  given  by 
shouts  or  bell-ringing, 
every  one  ran  at  once 
towards  the  scene  of  the  fire.  All  who  owned 
buckets  carried  them,  and  if  any  person  was  delayed 
even  for  a  few  minutes,  he  flung  his  fire-buckets 
from  the  window  into  the  street,  where  some  one  in 
the  running  crowd  seized  them  and  carried  them 
on.  On  reaching  the  fire,  a  double  line  called 
lanes  of  persons  was  made  from  the  fire  to  the 
river  or  pond,  or  a  well.  A  very  good  representa- 
tion of  these  lanes  is  given  in  this  fireman's  certifi- 
cate of  the  year  1800. 


Fire-buckets 


Homes  of  the  Colonists  17 


Fireman's  Certificate,  1800 


The  buckets,  filled  with  water,  were  passed  from 
hand  to  hand,  up  one  line  of  persons  to  the  fire, 
while  the  empty  ones  went  down  the  other  line. 
Boys  were  stationed  on  the  dry  lane.  Thus  a  con- 
stant supply  of  water  was  carried  to  the  fire.  If 
any  person  attempted  to  pass  through  the  line,  or 
hinder  the  work,  he  promptly  got  a  bucketful  or 
two  of  water  poured  over  him.  When  the  fire  was 
over,  the  fire-warden  took  charge  of  the  buckets  ; 
some  hours  later  the  owners  appeared,  each  picked 
out  his  own  buckets  from  the  pile,  carried  them 
home,  and  hung  them  up  by  the  front  door,  ready 
to  be  seized  again  for  use  at  the  next  alarm  of  fire. 

Many  of  these  old  fire-buckets  are  still  preserved, 
and  deservedly  are  cherished  heirlooms,  for  they 


1 8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

represent  the  dignity  and  importance  due  a  house- 
holding  ancestor.  They  were  a  valued  possession 
at  the  time  of  their  use,  and  a  costly  one,  being 
made  of  the  best  leather.  They  were  often  painted 
not  only  with  the  name  of  the  owner,  but  with 
family  mottoes,  crests,  or  appropriate  inscriptions, 
sometimes  in  Latin.  The  leather  hand-buckets  of 
the  Donnison  family  of  Boston  are  here  shown  ; 
those  of  the  Quincy  family  bear  the  legend  Impavadi 
Flammarium  ;  those  of  the  Oliver  family,  Friend  and 
Public.    In  these  fire-buckets  were  often  kept,  tightly 


First  Fire-engine  used  in  Brooklyn,  1785 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


l9 


rolled,  strong  canvas  bags,  in  which  valuables  could 
be  thrust  and  carried  from  the  burning  building. 

The  first  fire-engine  made  in  this  country  was  for 
the  town  of  Boston,  and  was  made  about  1650  by 
Joseph  Jencks,  the  famous  old  iron-worker  in  Lynn. 
It  was  doubtless  very  simple  in  shape,  as  were  its 
successors  until  well  into  this  century.  The  first  fire- 
engine  used  in  Brooklyn,  New  York,  is  here  shown. 
It  was  made  in  1785  by  Jacob  Boome.  Relays  of 
men  at  both  handles  worked  the  clumsy  pump.  The 
water  supply  for  this  engine  was  still  only  through 
the  lanes  of  fire-buckets,  except  in  rare  cases. 

By  the  year  1670  wooden  chimneys  and  log 
houses  of  the  Plymouth  and  Bay  colonies  were 
replaced  by  more  sightly  houses  of  two  stories, 
which  were  frequently  built  with  the  second  story 
jutting  out  a  foot  or  two  over  the  first,  and  some- 
times with  the  attic  story  still  further  extending 
over  the  second  story.  A  few  of  these  are  still 
standing:  The  White-Ellery  House,  at  Gloucester, 
Massachusetts,  in  1707,  is  here  shown.  This  "over- 
hang" is  popularly  supposed  to  have  been  built 
for  the  purpose  of  affording  a  convenient  shooting- 
place  from  which  to  repel  the  Indians.  This  is, 
however,  an  historic  fable.  The  overhanging  second 
story  was  a  common  form  of  building  in  England 
in  the  time  of  Oueen  Elizabeth,  and  the  Massachu- 


20  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


White-Ellery  House,  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  1707 


setts  and  Rhode  Island  settlers  simply  and  naturally 
copied  their  old  homes. 

The  roofs  of  many  of  these  new  houses  were 
steep,  and  were  shingled  with  hand-riven  shingles. 
The  walls  between  the  rooms  were  of  clay  mixed 
with  chopped  straw.  Sometimes  the  walls  were 
whitened  with  awash  made  of  powdered  clamshells. 
The  ground  floors  were  occasionally  of  earth,  but 
puncheon  floors  were  common  in  the  better  houses. 
The  well-smoothed  timbers  were  sanded  in  careful 
designs  with  cleanly  beach  sand. 


H  omes  of  the  Colonists 


21 


By  1676  the  Royal  Commissioners  wrote  of  Bos- 
ton that  the  streets  were  crooked,  and  the  houses 
usually  wooden,  with  a  few  of  brick  and  stone.  It 
is  a  favorite  tradition  of  brick  houses  in  all  the  col- 
onies that  the  brick  for  them  was  brought  from 
England.  As  excellent  brick  was  made  here,  I  can- 
not believe  all  these  tales  that  are  told.  Occasion- 
ally a  house,  such  as  the  splendid  Warner  Mansion, 
still  standing  in  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  is 
proved  to  be  of  imported  brick  by  the  bills  which 
are  still  existing  for  the  purchase  and  transportation 
of  the  brick.    A  later  form  of  many  houses  was 

!  . 


Boardman  Hill  House,  North  Saugus,  Massachusetts,  1650 


two  stories  or  two  stories  and  a  half  in  front, 
with  a  peaked  roof  that  sloped  down  nearly  to  the 
ground  in  the  back  over  an  ell  covering  the  kitchen, 


22  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

added  in  the  shape  known  as  a  lean-to,  or,  as  it 
was  called  by  country  folk,  the  linter.  This  slop- 
ing roof  gave  the  one  element  of  unconscious  pict- 
uresqueness  which  redeemed  the  prosaic  ugliness  of 
these  bare-walled  houses.  Many  lean-to  houses 
are  still  standing  in  New  England.    The  Boardman 


Birthplace  of  John  Adams  and  John  Quincy  Adams 


Hill  House,  built  at  North  Saugus,  Massachusetts, 
two  centuries  and  a  half  ago,  and  the  two  houses  of 
lean-to  form,  the  birthplaces  of  President  John 
Adams  and  of  President  John  Quincy  Adams,  are 
typical  examples. 

The  next  roof-form,  built  from  early  colonial 
days,  and  popular  a  century  ago,  was  what  was 
known  as  the  gambrel  roof.     This  resembled,  on 


I 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


23 


two  sides,  the  mansard  roof  of  France  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  but  was  also  gabled  at  two  ends.  The 
gambrel  roof  had  a  certain  grace  of  outline,  espe- 
cially when  joined  with  lean-tos  and  other  additions. 
The  house  partly  built  in  1636  in  Dedham,  Massa- 
chusetts, by  my  far-away  grandfather,  and  known  as 
the  Fairbanks  House,  is  the  oldest  gambrel-roofed 
house  now  standing.  It  is  still  occupied  by  one  of 
his  descendants  in  the  eighth  generation.  The  rear 
view  of  it,  here  given,  shows  the  picturesqueness  of 
roof  outlines  and  the  quaintness  which  comes  simply 
from  variety.  The  front  of  the  main  building,  with 
its  eight  windows,  all  of  different  sizes  and  set  at 
different  heights,  shows  equal  diversity.  Within, 
the  boards  in  the  wall-panelling  vary  from  two  to 
twenty-five  inches  in  width. 

The  windows  of  the  first  houses  had  oiled  paper 
to  admit  light.  A  colonist  wrote  back  to  England 
to  a  friend  who  was  soon  to  follow,  "  Bring  oiled 
paper  for  your  windows."  The  minister,  Higgin- 
son,  sent  promptly  in  1629  for  glass  for  windows. 
This  glass  was  set  in  the  windows  with  nails  ;  the 
sashes  were  often  narrow  and  oblong,  of  diamond- 
shaped  panes  set  in  lead,  and  opening  up  and  down 
the  middle  011  hinges.  Long  after  the  large  towns 
and  cities  had  glass  windows,  frontier  settlements 
still  had  heavy  wooden  shutters.   They  were  a  safer 


24 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


protection  against  Indian  assault,  as  well  as  cheaper. 
It  is  asserted  that  in  the  province  of  Kennebec, 
which  is  now  the  state  of  Maine,  there  was  not, 
even  as  late  as  1745,  a  house  that  had  a  square  of 
glass  in  it.  Oiled  paper  was  used  until  this  century 
in  pioneer  houses  for  windows  wherever  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  transport  glass. 

Few  of  the  early  houses  in  New  England  were 
painted,  or  colored,  as  it  was  called,  either  without 
or  within.  Painters  do  not  appear  in  any  of  the 
early  lists  of  workmen.  A  Salem  citizen,  just  pre- 
vious to  the  Revolution,  had  the  woodwork  of  one 
of  the  rooms  of  his  house  painted.  One  of  a  group 
of  friends,  discussing  this  extravagance  a  few  days 
later,  said :  "  Well !  Archer  has  set  us  a  fine  exam- 
ple of  expense,  —  he  has  laid  one  of  his  rooms  in 
oil."  This  sentence  shows  both  the  wording  and 
ideas  of  the  times. 

There  was  one  external  and  suggestive  adjunct 
of  the  earliest  pioneer's  home  which  was  found  in 
nearly  all  the  settlements  which  were  built  in  the 
midst  of  threatening  Indians.  Some  strong  houses 
were  always  surrounded  by  a  stockade,  or  "  pali- 
sado,"  of  heavy,  well-fitted  logs,  which  thus  formed 
a  garrison,  or  neighborhood  resort,  in  time  of 
danger.  In  the  valley  of  Virginia  each  settlement 
was  formed  of  houses  set  in  a  square,  connected  from 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


25 


end  to  end  of  the  outside  walls  by  stockades  with 
gates  ;  thus  forming  a  close  front.  On  the  James 
River,  on  Manhattan  Island,  were  stockades.  The 
whole  town  plot  of  Milford,  Connecticut,  was 
enclosed  in  1645,  and  the  Indians  taunted  the  set- 
tlers by  shouting  out,  "  White  men  all  same  like 
pigs."  At  one  time  in  Massachusetts,  twenty 
towns  proposed  an  all-surrounding  palisade.  The 
progress  and  condition  of  our  settlements  can  be 
traced  in  our  fences.  As  Indians  disappeared  or 
succumbed,  the  solid  row  of  pales  gave  place  to  a 
log-fence,  which  served  well  to  keep  out  depreda- 
tory animals.  When  dangers  from  Indians  or  wild 
animals  entirely  disappeared,  boards  were  still  not 
over-plenty,  and  the  strength  of  the  owner  could 
not  be  over-spent  on  unnecessary  fencing.  Then 
came  the  double-rail  fence ;  two  rails,  held  in  place 
one  above  the  other,  at  each  joining,  by  four 
crossed  sticks.  It  was  a  boundary,  and  would 
keep  in  cattle.  It  was  said  that  every  fence  should 
be  horse-high,  bull-proof,  and  pig-tight.  Then 
came  stone  walls,  showing  a  thorough  clearing  and 
taming  of  the  land.  The  succeeding  "  half-high  " 
stone  wall  —  a  foot  or  two  high,  with  a  single  rail 
on  t0p  _  showed  that  stones  were  not  as  plentiful 
in  the  fields  as  in  early  days.  The  "  snake-fence," 
or  "Virginia  fence,"  so  common  in  the  Southern 


26 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


states,  utilized  the  second  growth  of  forest  trees. 
The  split-rail  fence,  four  or  five  rails  in  height,  was 
set  at  intervals  with  posts,  pierced  with  holes  to  hold 
the  ends  of  the  rails.  These  were  used  to  some 
extent  in  the  East ;  but  our  Western  states  were 


Pierce  Garrison  House,  Newburyport 

fenced  throughout  with  rails  split  by  sturdy  pioneer 
rail-splitters,  among  them  young  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Board  fences  showed  the  day  of  the  sawmill  and 
its  plentiful  supply ;  the  wire  fences  of  to-day 
equally  prove  the  decrease  of  our  forests  and  our 
wood,  and  the  growth  of  our  mineral  supplies  and 


H  omes  of  the  Colonists 


27 


manufactures  of  metals.  Thus  even  our  fences 
might  be  called  historical  monuments. 

A  few  of  the  old  block-houses,  or  garrison 
houses,  the  "  defensible  houses,"  which  were  sur- 
rounded by  these  stockades,  are  still  standing. 
The  most  interesting  are  the  old  Garrison  at  East 
Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  built  in  1670;  it  has 
walls  of  solid  oak,  and  brick  a  foot  and  a  half  thick ; 
the  Saltonstall  House  at  Ipswich,  built  in  1633  ; 
Cradock  Old  Fort  in  Medford,  Massachusetts, 
built  in  1634  of  brick  made  on  the  spot;  an  old 
fort  at  York,  Maine ;  and  the  Whitefield  Garrison 
House,  built  in  1639  at  Guilford,  Connecticut. 
The  one  at  Newburyport  is  the  most  picturesque 
and  beautiful  of  them  all. 

As  social  life  in  Boston  took  on  a  little  aspect  of 
court  life  in  the  circle  gathered  around  the  royal 
governors,  the  pride  of  the  wealthy  found  expres- 
sion in  handsome  and  stately  houses.  These  were 
copied  and  added  to  by  men  of  wealth  and  social 
standing  in  other  towns.  The  Province  House, 
built  in  1679,  t'le  Frankland  House  in  1735,  and 
the  Hancock  House,  all  in  Boston;  the  Shirley 
House  in  Roxbury,  the  Wentworth  Mansion  in 
New  Hampshire,  are  good  examples.  They  were 
dignified  and  simple  in  form,  and  have  borne  the 
test  of  centuries,  —  they  wear  well.     They  never 


28 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


erred  in  over-ornamentation,  being  scant  of  interior 
decoration,  save  in  two  or  three  principal  rooms  and 
the  hall  and  staircase.  The  panelled  step  ends  and 
soffits,  the  graceful  newels  and  balusters,  of  those 
old  staircases  hold  sway  as  models  to  this  day. 


Knocker,  John  Hancock  House 


The  same  taste  which  made  the  staircase  the 
centre  of  decoration  within,  made  the  front  door 
the  sole  point  of  ornamentation  without ;  and  equal 
beauty  is  there  focussed.    Worthy  of  study  and  re- 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


29 


production,  many  of  the  old-time  front  doors  are 
with  their  fine  panels,  graceful,  leaded  side  win- 
dows, elaborate  and  pretty  fan-lights,  and  slight  but 
appropriate  carving.  The  prettiest  leaded  windows 
I  ever  saw  in  an  Amer- 
ican home  were  in  a 
thereby  glorified  hen- 
house. They  had 
been  taken  from  the 
discarded  front  door 
of  "a  remodelled  old 
Falmouth  house.  The 
hens  and  their  owner 
were  not  of  antiqua- 
rian tastes,  and  relin- 
quished the  windows 
for  a  machine-made 
sash  more  suited  to 
their  plebeian  tastes 
and  occupations. 
Many  colonial  doors 
had  door-latches  or 
knobs  of  heavy  brass  ; 
nearly  all  had  a  knocker 

of  wrought  iron  or  polished  brass,  a  cheerful  ornament 
that  ever  seems  to  resound  a  welcome  to  the  visitor 
as  well  as  a  notification  to  the  visited. 


Knocker,  Winslow  House,  Marshfield, 
Massachusetts 


3° 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


King-Hooper  House,  Danvers,  Massachusetts 

The  knocker  from  the  John  Hancock  House  in 
Boston  and  that  from  theWinslow  House  in  Marsh- 
field  are  here  shown  ;  both  are  now  in  the  custody 
of  the  Bostonian  Society,  and  may  be  seen  at  the  Old 
State  House  in  Boston.  The  latter  was  given  to 
the  society  by  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

The  "  King-Hooper "  House,  still  standing  in 
Danvers,  Massachusetts,  closely  resembled  the  Han- 
cock House.  This  house,  built  by  Robert  Hooper 
in  1754,  was  for  a  time  the  refuge  of  the  royal 
governor  of  Massachusetts  —  Governor  Gage ;  and 
hence  is  sometimes  called  General  Gage's  Head- 
quarters.     When  the  minute-men  marched  past 


Homes  of  the  Colonists 


3i 


.  the  house  to  Lexington  on  April  18,  1775,  they 
stripped  the  lead  from  the  gate-posts.  "  King 
Hooper "  angrily  denounced  them,  and  a  minute- 
man  fired  at  him  as  he  entered  the  house.  The 
bullet  passed  through  the  panel  of  the  door,  and  the 
rent  may  still  be  seen.  Hence  the  house  has  been 
often  called  The  House  of  the  Front  Door  with 
the  Bullet-Hole.  The  present  owner  and  occupier 
of  the  house,  Francis  Peabody,  Esq.,  has  appropri- 
ately named  it  The  Lindens,  from  the  stately  linden 
trees  that  grace  its  gardens  and  lawns. 

In  riding  through  those  portions  of  our  states 
that  were  the  early  settled  colonies,  it  is  pleasant  to 
note  where  any  old  houses  are  still  standing,  or 
where  the  sites  of  early  colonial  houses  are  known, 
the  good  taste  usually  shown  by  the  colonists  in  the 
places  chosen  to  build  their  houses.  They  dearly 
loved  a  "sightly  location."  An  old  writer  said: 
"  My  consayte  is  such  ;  I  had  rather  not  to  builde 
a  mansyon  or  a  house  than  to  builde  one  without  a 
good  prospect  in  it,  to  it,  and  from  it."    In  Virginia 

,  the  houses  were  set  on  the  river  slope,  where  every 
passing  boat  might  see  them.  The  New  England 
colonists  painfully  climbed  long,  tedious  hills,  that 
they  might  have  homes  from  whence  could  be  had 
a  beautiful  view,  and  this  was  for  the  double  reason, 
as  the  old  writer  said,  that  in  their  new  homes  they 
might  both  see  and  be  seen. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   LIGHT   OF   OTHER  DAYS 

THE  first  and  most  natural  way  of  light- 
ing the  houses  of  the  American  colonists, 
both  in  the  North  and  South,  was  by  the 
pine-knots  of  the  fat  pitch-pine,  which,  of  course, 
were  found  everywhere  in  the  greatest  plenty  in  the 
forests.  Governor  John  Winthrop  the  younger, 
in  his  communication  to  the  English  Royal  Society 
in  1662,  said  this  candle-wood  was  much  used  for 
domestic  illumination  in  Virginia,  New  York,  and 
New  England.  It  was  doubtless  gathered  every- 
where in  new  settlements,  as  it  has  been  in  pioneer 
homes  till  our  own  day.  In  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Vermont  it  was  used  till  this  century. 
In  the  Southern  states  the  pine-knots  are  still 
burned  in  humble  households  for  lighting  purposes, 
and  a  very  good  light  they  furnish. 

The  historian  Wood  wrote  in  1642,  in  his  New 
England's  Prospect :  — 

"  Out  of  these  Pines  Is  gotten  the  Candlewood  that  is 
much  spoke  of,  which  may  serve  as  a  shift  among  poore 

32 


The  Light  of  Other  Days  33 

folks,  but  I  cannot  commend  it  for  singular  good,  because 
it  droppeth  a  pitchy  kind  of  substance  where  it  stands." 

That  pitchy  kind  of  substance  was  tar,  which 
was  one  of  the  most  valuable  trade  products  of  the 
colonists.  So  much  tar  was  made  by  burning  the 
pines  on  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  that  as  early 
as  1650  the  towns  had  to  prohibit  the  using  of  can- 
dlewood  for  tar-making  if  gathered  within  six  miles 
of  the  Connecticut  River,  though  it  could  be  gath- 
ered by  families  for  illumination  and  fuel. 

Rev.  Mr.  Higginson,  writing  in  1633,  said  of 
these  pine-knots  :  — 

"  They  are  such  candles  as  the  Indians  commonly  use, 
having  no  other,  and  they  are  nothing  else  but  the  wood 
of  the  pine  tree,  cloven  in  two  little  slices,  something  thin, 
which  are  so  full  of  the  moysture  of  turpentine  and  pitch 
that  they  burne  as  cleere  as  a  torch." 

To  avoid  having  smoke  in  the  room,  and  on 
account  of  the  pitchy  droppings,  the  candle-wood 
was  usually  burned  in  a  corner  of  the  fireplace,  on  a 
flat  stone.  The  knots  were  sometimes  called  pine- 
torches.  One  old  Massachusetts  minister  boasted 
at  the  end  of  his  life  that  every  sermon  of  the  hun- 
dreds he  had  written,  had  been  copied  by  the  light 
of  these  torches.  Rev.  Mr.  Newman,  of  Rehoboth, 
is  said  to  have  compiled  his  vast  concordance  of  the 


34  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Bible  wholly  by  the  dancing  light  of  this  candle- 
wood.  Lighting  was  an  important  item  of  expense 
in  any  household  of  so  small  an  income  as  that  of 
a  Puritan  minister ;  and  the  single  candle  was  often 
frugally  extinguished  during  the  long  family  prayers 
each  evening.  Every  family  laid  in  a  good  supply 
of  this  light  wood  for  winter  use,  and  it  was  said 
that  a  prudent  New  England  farmer  would  as  soon 
start  the  winter  without  hav  in  his  barn  as  without 
candle-wood  in  his  woodshed. 

Mr.  Higginson  wrote  in  1630:  "Though  New 
England  has  no  tallow  to  make  candles  of,  yet  by 
abundance  of  fish  thereof  it  can  afford  oil  for  lamps." 
This  oil  was  apparently  wholly  neglected,  though 
there  were  few,  or  no  domestic  animals  to  furnish 
tallow;  but  when  cattle  increased,  every  ounce  of 
tallow  was  saved  as  a  precious  and  useful  treasure ; 
and  as  they  became  plentiful  it  was  one  of  the  house- 
hold riches  of  New  England,  which  was  of  value  to 
our  own  day.  When  Governor  Winthrop  arrived 
in  Massachusetts,  he  promptly  wrote  over  to  his 
wife  to  bring  candles  with  her  from  England  when 
she  came.  And  in  1634  he  sent  over  for  a  large 
quantity  of  wicks  and  tallow.  Candles  cost  four- 
pence  apiece,  which  made  them  costly  luxuries  for 
the  thrifty  colonists. 

Wicks  were  made  of  loosely  spun  hemp  or  tow, 


The  Light  of  Other  Days  35 

or  of  cotton;  from  the  milkweed  which  grows  so 
plentifully  in  our  fields  and  roads  to-day  the  chil- 
dren gathered  in  late  summer  the  silver  "  silk- 
down  "  which  was  "  spun  grossly  into  candle  wicke." 
Sometimes  the  wicks  were  dipped  into  saltpetre. 

Thomas  Tusser  wrote  in  England  in  the  six- 
teenth century  in  his  Directions  to  Housewifes :  — 

"  Wife,  make  thine  own  candle, 
Spare  penny  to  handle. 
Provide  for  thy  tallow  ere  frost  cometh  in, 
And  make  thine  own  candle  ere  winter  begin." 

Every  thrifty  housewife  in  America  saved  her 
penny  as  in  England.  The  making  of  the  winter's 
stock  of  candles  was  the  special  autumnal  house- 
hold duty,  and  a  hard  one  too,  for  the  great  kettles 
were  tiresome  and  heavy  to  handle.  An  early  hour 
found  the  work  well  under  way.  A  good  fire  was 
started  in  the  kitchen  fireplace  under  two  vast 
kettles,  each  two  feet,  perhaps,  in  diameter,  which 
were  hung  on  trammels  from  the  lug-pole  or  crane, 
and  half  filled  with  boiling  water  and  melted  tallow, 
which  had  had  two  scaldings  and  skimmings.  At 
the  end  of  the  kitchen  or  in  an  adjoining  and  cooler 
room,  sometimes  in  the  lean-to,  two  long  poles  were 
laid  from  chair  to  chair  or  stool  to  stool.  Across 
these  poles  were  placed  at  regular  intervals,  like  the 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


rounds  of  a  ladder,  smaller  sticks  about  fifteen  or 
eighteen  inches  long,  called  candle-rods.  These 
poles  and  rods  were  kept  from  year  to  year,  either 
in  the  garret  or  up  on  the  kitchen  beams. 

To  each  candle-rod  was  attached  about  six 
or  eight  carefully  straightened  candle-wicks.  The 
wicking  was  twisted  strongly  one  way ;  then 
doubled ;  then  the  loop  was  slipped  over  the  can- 
dle-rod, when  the  two  ends,  of  course,  twisted  the 
other  way  around  each  other,  making  a  firm  wick. 
A  rod,  with  its  row  of  wicks,  was  dipped  in  the 
melted  tallow  in  the  pot,  and  returned  to  its  place 
across  the  poles.  Each  row  was  thus  dipped  in 
regular  turn ;  each  had  time  to  cool  and  harden 
between  the  dips,  and  thus  grew  steadily  in  size. 
If  allowed  to  cool  fast,  they  of  course  grew  quickly, 
but  were  brittle,  and  often  cracked.  Hence  a  good 
worker  dipped  slowly,  but  if  the  room  was  fairly 
cool,  could  make  two  hundred  candles  for  a  day's 
work.  Some  could  dip  two  rods  at  a  time.  The 
tallow  was  constantly  replenished,  as  the  heavy 
kettles  were  used  alternately  to  keep  the  tallow 
constantly  melted,  and  were  swung  off  and  on  the 
fire.  Boards  or  sheets  of  paper  were  placed  under 
the  rods  to  protect  the  snowy,  scoured  floors. 

Candles  were  also  run  in  moulds  which  were 
groups  of  metal  cylinders,  usually  made  of  tin  or 


Candle-dipping 


Candle-moulds 


pewter.  Itinerant  candle-makers  went  from  house 
to  house,  taking  charge  of  candle-making  in  the 
household,  and  carrying  large  candle-moulds  with 
them.  One  of  the  larger  size,  making  two  dozen 
candles,  is  here  shown ;  but  its  companion,  the 
smaller  mould,  making  six  candles,  is  such  as  were 
more  commonly  seen.  Each  wick  was  attached  to 
a  wire  or  a  nail  placed  across  the  open  top  of  the 
cylinder,  and  hung  down  in  the  centre  of  each  indi- 
vidual mould.  The  melted  tallow  was  poured  in 
carefully  around  the  wicks. 

Wax  candles  also  were  made.    They  were  often 


3 8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

shaped  by  hand,  by  pressing  bits  of  heated  wax 
around  a  wick.  Farmers  kept  hives  of  bees  as 
much  for  the  wax  as  for  the  honey,  which  was  of 
much  demand  for  sweetening,  when  "  loaves "  of 
sugar  were  so  high-priced.  Deer  suet,  moose  fat, 
bear's  grease,  all  were  saved  in  frontier  settlements, 
and  carefully  tried  into  tallow  for  candles.  Every 
particle  of  grease  rescued  from  pot  liquor,  or  fat  from 
meat,  was  utilized  for  candle-making.  Rushlights 
were  made  by  stripping  part  of  the  outer  bark  from 
common  rushes,  thus  leaving  the  pith  bare,  then 
dipping  them  in  tallow  or  grease,  and  letting  them 
harden. 

The  precious  candles  thus  tediously  made  were 
taken  good  care  of.    They  were  carefully  packed  in 


candle-boxes  with  compartments  ;  were  covered  over, 
and  set  in  a  dark  closet,  where  they  would  not  dis- 
color  and  turn  yellow.    A  metal  candle-box,  hung 


The  Light  of  Other  Days 


39 


on  the  edge  of  the  kitchen  mantel-shelf,  always  held 
two  or  three  candles  to  replenish  those  which  burnt 
out  in  the  candlesticks. 

A  natural,  and  apparently  inexhaustible,  material 
for  candles  was  found  in  all  the  colonies  in  the  waxy 
berries  of  the  bayberry  bush,  which  still  grows  in 
large  quantities  on  our  coasts.  In  the  year  1748  a 
Swedish  naturalist,  Professor  Kalm,  came  to  America, 
and  he  wrote  an  account  of  the  bayberry  wax  which 
I  will  quote  in  full :  — 

"  There  is  a  plant  here  from  the  berries  of  which  they 
make  a  kind  of  wax  or  tallow,  and  for  that  reason  the 
Swedes  call  it  the  tallow-shrub.  The  English  call  the 
same  tree  the  candle-berry  tree  or  bayberry  bush ;  it  grows 
abundantly  in  a  wet  soil,  and  seems  to  thrive  particularly 
well  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  sea.  The  berries  look  as 
if  flour  had  been  strewed  on  them.  They  are  gathered  late 
in  Autumn,  being  ripe  about  that  time,  and  are  thrown  into 
a  kettle  or  pot  full  of  boiling  water ;  by  this  means  their  fat 
melts  out,  floats  at  the  top  of  the  water,  and  may  be  skimmed 
off  into  a  vessel;  with  the  skimming  they  go  on  till  there  is 
no  tallow  left.  The  tallow,  as  soon  as  it  is  congealed, 
looks  like  common  tallow  or  wax,  but  has  a  dirty  green 
color.  By  being  melted  over  and  refined  it  acquires  a  fine 
and  transparent  green  color.  This  tallow  is  dearer  than 
common  tallow,  but  cheaper  than  wax.  Candles  of  this 
do  not  easily  bend,  nor  melt  in  summer  as  common  candles 
do;  they  burn  better  and  slower,  nor  do  they  cause  any 


40  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

smoke,  but  yield  rather  an  agreeable  smell  when  they  are 
extinquished.  In  Carolina  they  not  only  make  candles  out 
of  the  wax  of  the  berries,  but  likewise  sealing-wax." 

Beverley,  the  historian  of  Virginia,  wrote  of  the 
smell  of  burning  bayberry  tallow  :  — 

"  If  an  accident  puts  a  candle  out,  it  yields  a  pleasant 
fragrancy  to  all  that  are  in  the  room ;  insomuch  that  nice 
people  often  put  them  out  on  purpose  to  have  the  incense 
of  the  expiring  snuff." 

Bayberry  wax  was  not  only  a  useful  home-product, 
but  an  article  of  traffic  till  this  century,  and  was  con- 
stantly advertised  in  the  newspapers.  In  17 12,  in  a 
letter  written  to  Governor  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  I 
find :  — 

u  I  am  now  to  beg  one  favour  of  you,  —  that  you  secure 
for  me  all  the  bayberry  wax  you  can  possibly  put  your 
hands  on.  You  must  take  a  care  they  do  not  put  too  much 
tallow  among  it,  being  a  custom  and  cheat  they  have  got." 

Bayberries  were  of  enough  importance  to  have 
some  laws  made  about  them.  Everywhere  on 
Long  Island  grew  the  stunted  bushes,  and  every- 
where they  were  valued.  The  town  of  Brook- 
haven,  in  1687,  forbade  the  gathering  of  the  berries 
before  September  15,  under  penalty  of  fifteen 
shillings'  fine. 

The  pungent  and  unique  scent  of  the  bayberry, 


The  Light  of  Other  Days  41 

equally  strong  in  leaf  and  berry,  is  to  me  one  of 
the  elements  of  the  purity  and  sweetness  of  the  air 
of  our  New  England  coast  fields  in  autumn.  It 
grows  everywhere,  green  and  cheerful,  in  sun-with- 
ered shore  pastures,  in  poor  bits  of  earth  on  our 
rocky  coast,  where  it  has  few  fellow  field-tenants  to 
crowd  the  ground.  It  is  said  that  the  highest 
efforts  of  memory  are  stimulated  through  our  sense 
of  smell,  by  the  association  of  ideas  with  scents. 
That  of  bayberry,  whenever  I  pass  it,  seems  to 
awaken  in  me  an  hereditary  memory,  to  recall  a  life 
of  two  centuries  ago.  I  recall  the  autumns  of  trial 
and  of  promise  in  our  early  history,  and  the  bay- 
berry  fields  are  peopled  with  children  in  Puritan 
garb,  industriously  gathering  the  tiny  waxen  fruit. 
Equally  full  of  sentiment  is  the  scent  of  my  burn- 
ing bayberry  candles,  which  were  made  last  autumn 
in  an  old  colony  town. 

The  history  of  whale-fishing  in  New  England  is 
the  history  of  one  of  the  most  fascinating  commer- 
cial industries  the  world  has  ever  known.  It  is  a 
story  with  every  element  of  intense  interest,  show- 
ing infinite  romance,  adventure,  skill,  courage,  and 
fortitude.  It  brought  vast  wealth  to  the  commu- 
nities that  carried  on  the  fishing,  and  great  indepen- 
dence and  comfort  to  the  families  of  the  whalers. 
To  the  whalemen  themselves  it  brought  incredible 


42  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


hardships  and  dangers,  yet  they  loved  the  life  with 
a  love  which  is  strange  to  view  and  hard  to  under- 
stand. In  the  oil  made  from  these  "  royal  fish " 
the  colonists  found  a  vast  and  cheap  supply  for 
their  metal  and  glass  lamps ;  while  the  toothed 
whales  had  stored  in  their  blunt  heads  a  valuable 
material  which  was  at  once  used  for  making  candles ; 
it  is  termed,  in  the  most  ancient  reference  I  have 
found  to  it  in  New  England  records,  Sperma-Coeti. 

It  was  asserted  that  one  of  these  spermaceti  can- 
dles gave  out  more  light  than  three  tallow  candles, 
and  had  four  times  as  big  a  flame.  Soon  their 
manufacture  and  sale  amounted  to  large  numbers, 
and  materially  improved  domestic  illumination. 

All  candles,  whatever  their  material,  were  care- 
fully used  by  the  economical  colonists  to  the  last 
bit  by  a  little  wire  frame  of  pins  and  rings  called  a 
save-all.  Candlesticks  of  various  metals  and 
shapes  were  found  in  every  house ;  and  often 
sconces,  which  were  also  called  candle-arms,  or 
prongs.  Candle-beams  were  rude  chandeliers,  a 
metal  or  wooden  hoop  with  candle-holders.  Snuf- 
fers were  always  seen,  with  which  to  trim  the 
candles,  and  snuffers  trays.  These  were  some- 
times exceedingly  richly  ornamented^  and  were  often 
of  silver:  extinguishers  often  accompanied  the 
snuffers. 


Silver  Snuffers  and  Tray 


Though  lamps  occasionally  appear  on  early 
inventories  and  lists  of  sales,  and  though  there  was 
plenty  of  whale  and  fish  oil  to  burn,  lamps  were 
not  extensively  used  in  America  for  many  years. 
"  Betty-lamps/'  shaped  much  like  antique  Roman 
lamps,  were  the  earliest  form.  They  were  small, 
shallow  receptacles,  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter 
and  about  an  inch  in  depth ;  either  rectangular, 
oval,  round,  or  triangular  in  shape,  with  a  project- 
ing nose  or  spout  an  inch  or  two  long.  They  usu- 
ally had  a  hook  and  chain  by  which  they  could  be 
hung  on  a  nail  in  the  wall,  or  on  the  round  in  the 
back  of  a  chair ;  sometimes  there  was  also  a  smaller 
hook  for  cleaning  out  the  nose  of  the  lamp.  They 
were  filled  with  tallow,  grease,  or  oil,  while  a  piece 
of  cotton  rag  or  coarse  wick  was  so  placed  that, 
when  lighted,  the  end  hung  out  on  the  nose.  From 
this  wick,  dripping  dirty  grease,  rose  a  dull,  smoky, 
ill-smelling  flame. 


44 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Betty  Lamps 

Phoebe-lamps  were  similar  in 
shape ;  though  some  had  double 
wicks,  that  is,  a  nose  at  either  side. 
Three  betty-lamps  are  shown  in 
the  illustration  :  all  came  from  old 
colonial  houses.  The  iron  lamp, 
solid  with  the  accumulated  grease  of  centuries,  was 
found  in  a  Virginia  cabin  ;  the  rectangular  brass  lamp 
came  from  a  Dutch  farmhouse ;  and  the  graceful 
oval  brass  lamp  from  a  New  England  homestead. 

Pewter  was  a  favorite  material  for  lamps,  as  it 
was  for  all  other  domestic  utensils.    It  was  specially 


The  Light  of  Other  Days  45 

in  favor  for  the  lamps  for  whale  oil  and  the  "  Port- 
er's fluid,"  that  preceded  our  present  illuminating 
medium,  petroleum. 
A  rare  form  is  the 
pewter  lamp  here 
shown.  It  is  in  the 
collection  of  ancient 
lamps,  lanterns,  can- 
dlesticks, etc.,  owned 
by  Mrs.  Samuel 
Bowne  Duryea,  of 
Brooklyn.  It  came 
from  a  Salem  home, 
where  it  was  used  as  a 
house-lantern.  With 
its  clear  bull's-eyes 
of  unusually  pure 
glass,  it  gave  what 
was  truly  a  bril- 
liant light  for  the 
century  of  its  use. 

A     grOUp      Of     Old  Bull  s-Eye  Lamp 

pewter   lamps,  of 

the  shapes  commonly  used  in  the  homes  of  our 
ancestors  a  century  or  so  ago,  is  also  given  ;  chosen, 
not  because  they  were  unusual  or  beautiful,  but 
because  they  were  universal  in  their  use. 


46 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  lamps  of  Count  Rumford's  invention  were 
doubtless  a  great  luxury,  with  their  clear  steady 
light;  but  they  were  too  costly  to  be  commonly 
seen  in  our  grandfathers'  homes.  Nor  were  Argand 
burners  ever  universal.  Glass  lamps  of  many 
simple  shapes  shared  popularity  for  a  long  time 
with  the  pewter  lamps;  and  as  pewter  gradually 
disappeared  from  household  use,  these  glass  lamps 


Old  Pewter  Lamps 


monopolized  the  field.  They  were  rarely  of  cut 
or  colored  glass,  but  were  pressed  glass  of  common- 
place form  and  quality,    A  group  of  them  is  here 


Old  Glass  Lamps 


given  which  were  all  used  in  old  New  England 
houses  in  the  early  part  of  this  century. 

For  many  years  the  methods  of  striking  a  light 
were  very  primitive,  just  as  they  were  in  Europe  ; 
many  families  possessed  no  adequate  means,  or 
very  imperfect  ones.  If  by  ill  fortune  the  fire  in 
the  fireplace  became  wholly  extinguished  through 


48  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Tinder-box 


carelessness  at  night,  some  one,  usually  a  small  boy, 
was  sent  to  the  house  of  the  nearest  neighbor, 
bearing  a  shovel  or  covered  pan,  or  perhaps  a 
broad  strip  of  green  bark,  on  which  to  bring  back 
coals  for  relighting  the  fire.  Nearly  all  families  had 
some  form  of  a  flint  and  steel,  —  a  method  of  obtain- 
ing fire  which  has  been  used  from  time  immemorial 
by  both  civilized  and  uncivilized  nations.  This 
always  required  a  flint,  a  steel,  and  a  tinder  of  some 
vegetable  matter  to  catch  the  spark  struck  by  the 
concussion  of  flint  and  steel.  This  spark  was  then 
blown  into  a  flame.  Among  the  colonists  scorched 
linen  was  a  favorite  tinder  to  catch  the  spark  of 
fire ;  and  till  this  century  all  the  old  cambric  hand- 
kerchiefs, linen  underwear,  and  worn  sheets  of  a 
household  were  carefully  saved  for  this  purpose. 


The  Light  of  Other  Days  49 

The  flint,  steel,  and  tinder  were  usually  kept  to- 
gether in  a  circular  tinder-box,  such  as  is  shown  in 
the  accompanying  illustration;  it  was  a  shape  uni- 
versal in  England  and  America.  This  had  an  inner 
flat  cover  with  a  ring,  a  flint,  a  horseshoe-shaped 
steel,  and  an  upper  lid  with  a  place  to  set  a  candle- 
end  in,  to  carry  the  newly  acquired  light.  Though 
I  have  tried  hundreds  of  times  with  this  tinder-box, 
I  have  never  yet  succeeded  in  striking  a  light.  The 
sparks  fly,  but  then  the  operation  ceases  in  modern 
hands.  Charles  Dickens  said  if  you  had  good  luck, 
you  could  get  a  light  in  half  an  hour.    Soon  there 


Tinder-wheel,  Flint,  and  Tinder 


was  an  improvement  on  this  tinder-box,  by  which 
sparks  were  obtained  by  spinning  a  steel  wheel  with 
a  piece  of  cord,  somewhat  like  spinning  a  humming 


50  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


top,  and  making  the  wheel  strike  a  flint  fixed  in  the 
side  of  a  little  trough  full  of  tinder.  This  was  an 
infinite  advance  in  convenience  on  tinder-box  No.  1. 
This  box  was  called  in  the  South  a  mill ;  one  is 
here  shown.  Then  some  person  invented  strips 
of  wood  dipped  in  sulphur  and  called  "  spunks." 
These  readily  caught  fire,  and  retained  it,  and  were 
handy  to  carry  light  to  a  candle  or  pile  of  chips. 

Another  way  of  starting  a  fire  was  by  flashing  a 
little  powder  in  the  pan  of  an  old-fashioned  gun  ; 
sometimes  this  fired  a  twist  of  tow,  which  in  turn 
started  a  heap  of  shavings. 

Down  to  the  time  of  our  grandfathers,  and  in 
some  country  homes  of  our  fathers,  lights  were 
started  with  these  crude  elements,  —  flint,  steel,  tin- 
der,—  and  transferred  by  the  sulphur  splint ;  for  fifty 
years  ago  matches  were  neither  cheap  nor  common. 

Though  various  processes  for  lighting  in  which 
sulphur  was  used  in  a  match  shape,  were  brought 
before  the  public  at  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
they  were  complicated,  expensive,  and  rarely  seen. 
The  first  practical  friction  matches  were  "  Con- 
greves,"  made  in  England  in  1827.  They  were  thin 
strips  of  wood  or  cardboard  coated  with  sulphur 
and  tipped  with  a  mixture  of  mucilage,  chlorate  of 
potash,  and  sulphide  of  antimony.  Eighty-four  of 
them  were  sold  in  a  box  for  twenty-five  cents,  with 


The  Light  of  Other  Days 


51 


apiece  of  "  glass-paper "  through  which  the  match 
could  be  drawn.  There  has  been  a  long  step  this 
last  fifty  years  between  the  tinder-box  used  so  pa- 
tiently for  two  centuries,  and  the  John  Jex  Long 
match-making  machine  of  our  times,  which  turns 
out  seventeen  million  matches  a  day. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE   KITCHEN  FIRESIDE 

THE  kitchen  in  all  the  farmhouses  of  all  the 
colonies  was  the  most  cheerful,  homelike, 
and  picturesque  room  in  the  house ;  indeed, 
it  was  in  town  houses  as  well.  The  walls  were  often 
bare,  the  rafters  dingy  ;  the  windows  were  small,  the 
furniture  meagre  ;  but  the  kitchen  had  a  warm,  glow- 
ing heart  that  spread  light  and  welcome,  and  made 
the  poor  room  a  home.  In  the  houses  of  the  first 
settlers  the  chimneys  and  fireplaces  were  vast  in 
size,  sometimes  so  big  that  the  fore-logs  and  back- 
logs for  the  fire  had  to  be  dragged  in  by  a  horse  and 
a  long  chain  ;  or  a  hand-sled  was  kept  for  the  pur- 
pose. Often  there  were  seats  within  the  chimney 
on  either  side.  At  night  children  could  sit  on  these 
seats  and  there  watch  the  sparks  fly  upward  and  join 
the  stars  which  could  plainly  be  seen  up  the  great 
chimney-throat. 

But  as  the  forests  disappeared  under  the  waste  of 
burning  for  tar,  for  potash,  and  through  wanton 
clearing,  the  fireplaces  shrank  in  size ;  and  Benjamin 

5* 


The  Kitchen  Fireside  53 

Franklin,  even  in  his  day,  could  write  of  "  the  fire- 
places of  our  fathers." 

-  The  inflammable  catted  chimney  of  logs  and  clay, 
hurriedly  and  readily  built  by  the  first  settlers,  soon 
gave  place  in  all  houses  to  vast  chimneys  of  stone, 
built  with  projecting  inner  ledges,  on  which  rested 
a  bar  about  six  or  seven  or  even  eight  feet  from  the 
floor,  called  a  lug-pole  (lug  meaning  to  carry)  or  a 
back-bar ;  this  was  made  of  green  wood,  and  thus 
charred  slowly  —  but  it  charred  surely  in  the  gen- 
erous flames  of  the  great  chimney  heart.  Many 
annoying,  and  some  fatal  accidents  came  from  the 
collapsing  of  these  wooden  back-bars.  The  destruc- 
tion of  a  dinner  sometimes  was  attended  with  the  loss 
of  a  life.  Later  the  back-bars  were  made  of  iron.  On 
them  were  hung  iron  hooks  or  chains  with  hooks  of 
various  lengths  called  pothooks,  trammels,  hakes,  pot- 
hangers,  pot-claws,  pot-clips,  pot-brakes,  pot-crooks. 
Mr.  Arnold  Talbot,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island, 
has  folding  trammels,  nine  feet  long,  which  were 
found  in  an  old  Narragansett  chimney  heart.  Gib- 
crokes  and  recons  were  local  and  less  frequent 
names,  and  the  folks  who  in  their  dialect  called  the 
lug-pole  a  gallows-balke  called  the  pothooks  gal- 
lows-crooks. On  these  hooks  pots  and  kettles  could 
be  hung  at  varying  heights  over  the  fire.  The  iron 
swinging-crane  was  a  Yankee  invention  of  a  century 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


after  the  first  settlement,  and  it  proved  a  convenient 
and  graceful  substitute  for  the  back-bar. 

Some  Dutch  houses  had  an  adaptation  of  a  South- 
ern method  of  housekeeping  in  the  use  of  a  detached 
house  called  a  slave-kitchen,  where  the  meals  of 
the  negro  house  and  farm  servants  were  cooked  and 
served.  The  slave-kitchen  of  the  old  Bergen  home- 
stead stood  unaltered  till  within  a  few  years  on  Third 
Avenue  in  Brooklyn.  It  still  exists  in  a  dismantled 
condition.  Its  picture  plainly  shows  the  stone  ledges 
within  the  fireplace,  the  curved  iron  lug-pole,  and 
hanging  pothooks  and  trammels.  With  ample  fire 
of  hickory  logs  burning  on  the  hearthstone,  and  the 
varied  array  of  primitive  cooking-vessels  steaming 
with  savory  fare,  a  circle  of  laughing,  black  faces 
shining  with  the  glowing  firelight  and  hungry  antici- 
pation, would  make  a  "  Dutch  interior  "  of  American 
form  and  shaping  as  picturesque  and  artistic  as  any 
of  Holland.  The  fireplace  itself  sometimes  went 
by  the  old  English  name,  clavell-piece,  as  shown  by 
the  letters  of  John  Wynter,  written  from  Maine  in 
1634  to  his  English  home.  "The  Chimney  is  large, 
with  an  oven  at  each  end  of  him  :  he  is  so  large  that 
wee  can  place  our  Cyttle  within  the  Clavell-piece. 
Wee  can  brew  and  bake  and  boyl  our  Cyttle  all  at 
once  in  him."  Often  a  large  plate  of  iron,  called 
the  fire-back  or  fire-plate,  was  set  at  the  back  of  the 


The  Kitchen  Fireside 


55 


chimney,  where  the  constant  and  fierce  fire  crumbled 
brick  and  split  stone.  These  iron  backs  were  often 
cast  in  a  handsome  design. 

In  New  York  the  chimneys  and  fireplaces  were 
Dutch  in  shape ;  the  description  given  by  a  woman 
traveller  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  ran 
thus : — 

"  The  chimney-places  are  very  droll-like  :  they  have  no 
jambs  nor  lintell  as  we  have,  but  a  flat  grate,  and  there  pro- 
jects over  it  a  lum  in  the  form  of  the  cat-and-clay  lum,  and 
commonly  a  muslin  or  ruffled  pawn  around  it." 

The  "  ruffled  pawn  "  was  a  calico  or  linen  valance 
which  was  hung  on  the  edge  of  the  mantel-shelf,  a 
pretty  and  cheerful  fashion  seen  in  some  English  as 
well  as  Dutch  homes. 

Another  Dutch  furnishing,  the  alcove  bedstead, 
much  like  a  closet,  seen  in  many  New  York  kitch- 
ens, was  replaced  in  New  England  farm-kitchens  by 
the  "  turn-up  "  bedstead.  This  was  a  strong  frame 
filled  with  a  network  of  rope  which  was  fastened  at 
the  bed-head  by  hinges  to  the  wall.  By  night  the 
foot  of  the  bed  rested  on  two  heavy  legs  ;  by  day 
the  frame  with  its  bed  furnishings  was  hooked  up  to 
the  wall,  and  covered  with  homespun  curtains  or 
doors.  This  was  the  sleeping-place  of  the  master 
and  mistress   of  the   house,  chosen   because  the 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


kitchen  was  the  warmest  room  in  the  house.  One 
of  these  "  turn-up "  bedsteads  which  was  used  in 
the  Sheldon  homestead  until  this  century  may  be 
seen  in  Deerfield  Memorial  Hall. 

Over  the  fireplace  and  across  the  top  of  the  room 
were  long  poles  on  which  hung  strings  of  peppers, 
dried  apples,  and  rings  of  dried  pumpkin.  And 
the  favorite  resting-place  for  the  old  queen's-arm 
or  fowling-piece  was  on  hooks  over  the  kitchen 
fireplace. 

On  the  pothooks  and  trammels  hung  what  formed 
in  some  households  the  costliest  house-furnishing, 
—  the  pots  and  kettles.  The  Indians  wished  their 
brass  kettles  buried  with  them  as  a  precious  posses- 
sion, and  the  settlers  equally  valued  them ;  often 
these  kettles  were  worth  three  pounds  apiece.  In 
many  inventories  of  the  estates  of  the  settlers  the 
brass-ware  formed  an  important  item.  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker  of  Hartford  had  brass-ware  which,  in  the 
equalizing  of  values  to-day,  would  be  worth  three 
or  four  hundred  dollars.  The  great  brass  and  cop- 
per kettles  often  held  fifteen  gallons.  The  vast  iron 
pot —  desired  and  beloved  of  every  colonist  — some- 
times weighed  forty  pounds,  and  lasted  in  daily  use 
for  many  years.  All  the  vegetables  were  boiled 
together  in  these  great  pots,  unless  some  very  par- 
ticular housewife  had  a  wrought-iron  potato-boiler 


The  Kitchen  Fireside  57 

to  hold  potatoes  or  any  single  vegetable  in  place 
within  the  vast  general  pot. 


Iron  Potato-boiler 


Chafing-dishes  and  skimmers  of  brass  and  copper 
were  also  cheerful  discs  to  reflect  the  kitchen  firelight. 


58  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Very  little  tin  was  seen,  either  for  kitchen  or 
table  utensils.  Governor  Winthrop  had  a  few  tin 
plates,  and  some  Southern  planters  had  tin  pans, 
others  "tynnen  covers/'  Tin  pails  were  unknown; 
and  the  pails  they  did  own,  either  of  wood,  brass, 
or  other  sheet  metal,  had  no  bails,  but  were  carried 
by  thrusting  a  stick  through  little  ears  on  either 
side  of  the  pail.  Latten  ware  was  used  instead  of 
tin  ;  it  was  a  kind  of  brass.  A  very  good  collection 
of  century-old  tinware  is  shown  in  the  illustration. 


Old  Tinware 

By  a  curious  chance  this  tinware  lay  unpacked  for 
over  ninety  years  in  the  attic  loft  of  a  country  ware- 
house, in  the  packing-box,  just  as  it  was  delivered 
from  an  English  ship  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  pulling  down  of  the  warehouse  disclosed 
the  box,  with  its  dated  labels.    The  tin  utensils  are 


The  Kitchen  Fireside 


59 


more  gayly  lacquered  than  modern  ones,  otherwise 
they  differ  little  from  the  tinware  of  to-day. 

There  was  one  distinct  characteristic  in  the  house- 
furnishing  of  olden  times  which  is  lacking  to-day. 
It  was  a  tendency  for  the  main  body  of  everything 
to  set  well  up,  on  legs  which  were  strong  enough 
for  adequate  support  of  the  weight,  yet  were  slender 
in  appearance.  To-day  bureaus,  bedsteads,  cabi- 
nets, desks,  sideboards,  come  close  to  the  floor ; 
formerly  chests  of  drawers,  Chippendale  sideboards, 
four-post  bedsteads,  dressing-cases,  were  set,  often 
a  foot  high,  in  a  tidy,  cleanly  fashion  ;  thus  they 
could  all  be  thoroughly  swept  under.  This  same 
peculiarity  of  form  extended  to  cooking-utensils. 
Pots  and  kettles  had  legs,  as  shown  in  those  hang- 


iron  Skillet,  Rabbit  Broiler,  and  Brazier 


ing  in  the  slave-kitchen  fireplace;  gridirons  had 
legs,  skillets  had  legs  ;  and  further  appliances  in  the 


6o  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


shape  of  trivets,  which  were  movable  frames,  took 
the  place  of  legs.  The  necessity  for  the  stilting  up 
of  cooking-utensils  was  a  very  evident  one ;  it  was 
necessary  to  raise  the  body  of  the  utensil  above  the 
ashes  and  coals  of  the  open  fireplace.  If  the  bed 
of  coals  and  burning  logs  were  too  deep  for  the 
skillet  or  pot-legs,  then  the  utensil  must  be  hung 
from  above  by  the  ever-ready  trammel. 

Often  in  the  corner  ^  of  the  fireplace  there 
stood  a  group  of     /       trivets,  or  three-legged 


Toasting-forks 

stands,  of  varying  heights,  through  which  the  exactly 
desired  proximitv  to  the  coals  could  be  obtained. 

Even  toasting-forks,  and  similar  frail  utensils  of 
wire  or  wrought  iron,  stood  on  tall,  spindling  legs, 
or  were  carefully  shaped  to  be  set  up  on  trivets. 
They  usually  had,  also,  long,  adjustable  handles, 
which  helped  to  make  endurable  the  blazing  heat 
of  the  great  logs.  All  such  irons  as  waffle-irons 
had  far  longer  handles  than  are  seen  on  any  cooking- 
utensils  in  these  days  of  stoves  and  ranges,  where 
the  flames  are  covered  and  the  housewife  shielded. 


The  Kitchen  Fireside 


61 


Gridirons  had  long  handles  of  wood  or  iron,  which 
could  be  fastened  to  the  shorter  stationary  handles. 


Waffle-irons 


The  two  gridirons  in  the  accompanying  illustration 
are  a  century  old.  The  circular  one  was  the  oldest 
form.  The  oblong  ones,  with  groove  to  collect  the 
gravy,  did  not  vary  in  shape  till  our  own  day.  Both 
have  indications  of  fittings  for  long  handles,  but  the 
handles  have  vanished.  A  long-handled  frying-pan 
is  seen  hanging  by  the  side  of  the  slave-kitchen  fire- 
place. 

An  accompaniment  of  the  kitchen  fireplace, 
found,  not  in  farmhouses,  but  among  luxury-loving 
town-folk,  was  the  plate-warmer.  They  are  seldom 
named  in  inventories,  and  I  know  of  but  one  of 
Revolutionary  days,  and  it  is  here  shown.  Similar 
ones  are  manufactured  to-day  ;  the  legs,  perhaps, 
are  shorter,  but  the  general  outline  is  the  same. 


62  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


An  important  furnishing  of  every  fireplace  was 
the  andirons.  In  kitchen  fireplaces  these  were  usu- 
ally of  iron,  and  the  shape  known  as  goose-neck 
were  common.  Cob  irons  were  the  simplest  form, 
and  merely  supported  the  spit ;    sometimes  they 


Old  Gridirons 


had  hooks  to  hold  a  dripping-pan.  A  common 
name  for  the  kitchen  andirons  was  fire-dogs  ;  and 
creepers  were  low,  small  andirons,  usually  used  with 
the  tall  fire-dogs.  The  kitchen  andirons  were  sim- 
ply for  use  to  help  hold  the  logs  and  cooking-uten- 
sils. But  other  fireplaces  had  handsome  fire-dogs 
of  copper,  brass,  or  cut  steel,  cast  or  wrought  in 
handsome  devices.  These  were  a  pride  and  delight 
to  the  housewife. 

A  primitive  method  of  roasting  a  joint  of  meat  or 


The  Kitchen  Fireside  63 

a  fowl  was  by  suspending  it  in  front  of  the  fire  by  a 
strong  hempen  string  tied  to  a  peg  in  the  ceiling,  while 


Plate-warmer 


some  one  — usually  an  unwilling  child  —  occasionally 
turned  the  roast  around.    Sometimes  the  sole  turn- 


64  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


spit  was  the  housewife,  who,  every  time  she  basted 
the  roast,  gave  the  string  a  good  twist,  and  thereafter 
it  would  untwist,  and  then  twist  a  little  again,  and  so 
on  until  the  vibration  ceased,  when  she  again  basted 


Bake- kettle,  Clock-jack,  Dutch  Oven,  and  Dye  Tub 


and  started  it.  As  the  juices  sometimes  ran  down 
in  the  roast  and  left  the  upper  part  too  dry,  a 
"  double  string-roaster  "  was  invented,  by  which  the 
equilibrium  of  the  joint  could  be  shifted.  A  jack 
was  a  convenient  and  magnified  edition  of  the  prim- 


The  Kitchen  Fireside  65 

itive  string,  being  a  metal  suspensory  machine.  A 
still  further  glorification  was  the  addition  of  a  re- 
volving power  which  ran  by  clockwork  and  turned 
the  roast  with  regularity;  this  was  known  as  a 
clock-jack.  The  one  here  shown  hangs  in  the  fire- 
place in  Deerfield  Memorial  Hall.  A  smoke-jack 
was  run  somewhat  irregularly  by  the  pressure  of 
smoke  and  the  current  of  hot  air  in  the  chimney. 
These  were  noisy  and  creaking  and  not  regarded 
with  favor  by  old-fashioned  cooks. 

We  are  apt  to  think  of  the  turnspit  dog  as  a 
creature  of  European  life,  but  we  had  them  here 
in  America  —  little  low,  bow-legged,  patient  souls, 
trained  to  run  in  a  revolving  cylinder  and  keep  the 
roasting  joint  a-turn  before  the  fire.  Mine  host 
Clark  of  the  State  House  Inn  in  Philadelphia  in 
the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  advertised 
in  Benjamin  Franklin's  Pennsylvania  Gazette  that 
he  had  for  sale  "  several  dogs  and  wheels,  much 
preferable  to  any  jacks  for  roasting  any  joints  of 
meat."  I  hope  neither  he  nor  any  one  else  had 
many  of  these  little  canine  slaves. 

A  frequent  accompaniment  of  the  kitchen  fire- 
place in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  a  domestic 
luxury  seen  in  well-to-do  homes,  was  the  various 
forms  of  the  "  roasting-kitchen,"  or  Dutch  oven. 
These  succeeded  the  jacks;  they  were  a  box-like 

F 


66 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


arrangement  open  on  one  side  which  when  in  use 
was  turned  to  the  fire.  Like  other  utensils  of  the 
day,  they  often  stood  up  on  legs,  to  bring  the  open 


Roasting-kitchens 

side  before  the  blaze.  A  little  door  at  the  back 
could  be  opened  for  convenience  in  basting  the  roast. 
These  kitchens  came  in  various  sizes  for  roasting 
birds  or  joints,  and  in  them  bread  was  occasionally 
baked.  The  bake-kettle,  which  in  some  commu- 
nities was  also  called  a  Dutch  oven,  was  preferred  for 
baking  bread.  It  was  a  strong  kettle,  standing, 
of  course,  on  stout,  stumpy  legs,  and  when  in  use 
was  placed  among  the  hot  coals  and  closely  covered 
with  a  strong  metal,  convex  cover,  on  which  coals 
were  also  closely  heaped.  Such  perfect  rolls,  such 
biscuit,  such  shortcake,  as  issued  from  the  heaped- 
up  bake-kettle  can  never  be  equalled  by  other 
methods  of  cooking. 

When  the  great  stone  chimney  was  built,  there 


The  Kitchen  Fireside 


6? 


was  usually  placed  on  one  side  of  the  kitchen  fire- 
place a  brick  oven  which  had  a  smoke  uptake  into 
the  chimney  —  and  an  ash-pit  below.  The  great 
door  was  of  iron.  This  oven  was  usually  heated 
once  a  week.  A  great  fire  of  dry  wood,  called  oven 
wood,  was  kindled  within  it  and  kept  burning 
fiercely  for  some  hours.  This  thoroughly  heated 
all  the  bricks.  The  coals  and  ashes  were  then 
swept  out,  the  chimney  draught  closed,  and  the 
oven  filled  with  brown  bread,  pies,  pots  of  beans, 
etc.  Sometimes  the  bread  was  baked  in  pans,  some- 
times it  was  baked  in  a  great  mass  set  on  cabbage 
leaves  or  oak  leaves.  In  some  towns  an  autumn 
harvest  of  oak  leaves  was  gathered  by  children  to 
use  throughout  the  winter.  The  leaves  were 
strung  on  sticks.  This  gathering  was  called  going 
a-leafing. 

By  the  oven  side  was  always  a  long-handled 
shovel  known  as  a  peel  or  slice,  which  sometimes 
had  a  rack  or  rest  to  hold  it ;  this  implement  was  a 
necessity  in  order  to  place  the  food  well  within  the 
glowing  oven.  The  peel  was  sprinkled  with  meal, 
great  heaps  of  dough  were  placed  thereon,  and  by  a 
dexterous  twist  they  were  thrown  on  the  cabbage  or 
oak  leaves.  A  bread  peel  was  a  universal  gift  to  a 
bride ;  it  was  significant  of  domestic  utility  and 
plenty,  and  was   held  to  be  luck-bearing.  On 


68  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Thanksgiving  week  the  great  oven  had  a  fire  built 
in  it  every  morning,  and  every  night  it  was  well 
filled  and  closed  till  morning. 

On  one  side  of  the  kitchen  often  stood  a  dresser, 
on  which  was  placed  in  orderly  rows  the  cheerful 
pewter  and  scant  earthenware  of  the  household  :  — 

"  the  room  was  bright 

With  glimpses  of  reflected  light, 

From  plates  that  on  the  dresser  shone." 

In  Dutch  households  plate-racks,  spoon-racks, 
knife-racks,  —  all  hanging  on  the  wall,  —  took  the 
place  of  the  New  England  dresser. 

In  the  old  Phillips  farmhouse  at  Wickford, 
Rhode  Island,  is  a  splendid  chimney  over  twenty 
feet  square.  So  much  room  does  it  occupy  that 
there  is  no  central  staircase,  but  little  winding  stairs 
ascend  at  three  corners  of  the  house.  In  the  vast 
fireplace  an  ox  could  literally  have  been  roasted. 
On  each  chimney-piece  are  hooks  to  hang  firearms, 
and  at  one  side  curious  little  drawers  are  set  for 
pipes  and  tobacco.  In  some  Dutch  houses  in  New 
York  these  tobacco  shelves  are  in  the  entry,  over 
the  front  door,  and  a  narrow  flight  of  three  or  four 
steps  leads  up  to  them.  Hanging  on  a  nail  along- 
side the  tobacco  drawer,  or  shelf,  would  usually  be 
seen  a  pipe-tongs,  or  smoking-tongs.    They  were 


The  Kitchen  Fireside 


69 


slender  little  tongs,  usually  of  iron  or 
steel ;  with  them  the  smoker  lifted  a 
coal  from  the  fireplace  to  light  his  pipe. 
The  tongs  owned  and  used  by  Captain 
Joshua  Wingate,  of  Hampton,  New 
Hampshire,  who  lived  from  1679  to 
1769,  are  here  shown.  The  handle  is 
unlike  any  other  I  have  seen,  having 
one  end  elongated,  knobbed,  and  inge- 
niously bent  S-shaped  into  convenient 
form  to  press  down  the  tobacco  into 
the  bowl  of  the  pipe.  Other  old-time 
pipe-tongs  were  in  the  form  of  lazy- 
tongs.  A  companion  of  the  pipe-tongs 
on  the  kitchen  mantel  was  what  was 
known  as  a  comfortier  —  a  little  brazier 
of  metal  in  which  small  coals  could  be 
handed  about  for  pipe-lighting.  An 
unusual  luxury  was  a  comfortier  of  sil- 
ver. These  were  found  among  the 
Dutch  settlers. 

The  Pennsylvania  Germans  were  the 
first  to  use  stoves.  These  were  of 
various  shapes.  A  curious  one,  seen 
in  houses  and  churches,  was  of  sheet- 
metal,  box-shaped;  three  sides  were 
house,  and  the  fourth,  with  the  stove  door,  outside 


Smoking-tongs 

within  the 


70  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


the  house.  Thus  what  was  really  the  back  of  the 
stove  projected  into  the  room,  and  when  the  fire 
was  fed  it  was  necessary  for  the  tender  to  go 
out  of  doors.  These  German  stoves  and  hot-air 
drums,  which  heated  the  second  story  of  the  house, 
were  ever  a  fresh  wonder  to  travellers  of  English 
birth  and  descent  in  Pennsylvania.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  their  evident  economy  and  comfort  sug- 
gested to  Benjamin  Franklin  the  "  New  Pennsyl- 
vania Fireplace,"  which  he  invented  in  1742,  in 
which  both  wood  and  coal  could  be  used,  and  which 
was  somewhat  like  the  heating  apparatus  which  we 
now  call  a  Franklin  stove,  or  heater. 

Thus  German  settlers  had,  in  respect  to  heating, 
the  most  comfortable  homes  of  all  the  colonies. 
Among  the  English  settlers  the  kitchen  was,  too 
often,  the  only  comfortable  room  in  the  house  in 
winter  weather.  Indeed,  the  discomforts  and  incon- 
veniences of  a  colonial  home  could  scarcely  be  en- 
dured to-day :  of  course  these  culminated  in  the 
winter  time,  when  icy  blasts  blew  fiercely  down  the 
great  chimneys,  and  rattled  the  loosely  fitting  win- 
dows. Children  suffered  bitterly  in  these  cold 
houses.  The  rooms  were  not  warm  three  feet 
away  from  the  blaze  of  the  fire.  Cotton  Mather 
and  Judge  Samuel  Sewall  both  tell,  in  their  diaries, 
of  the  ink  freezing  in  their  pens  as  they  wrote  within 


The  Kitchen  Fireside  71 

the  chimney-side.  One  noted  that,  when  a  great  fire 
was  built  on  the  hearth,  the  sap  forced  out  of  the 
wood  by  the  flames  froze  into  ice  at  the  end  of 
the  logs.  The  bedrooms  were  seldom  warmed, 
and  had  it  not  been  for  the  deep  feather  beds  and 
heavy  bed-curtains,  would  have  been  unendurable. 
In  Dutch  and  some  German  houses,  with  alcove 
bedsteads,  and  sleeping  on  one  feather  bed,  with 
another  for  cover,  the  Dutch  settlers  could  be  far 
warmer  than  any  English  settlers,  even  in  four-post 
bedsteads  curtained  with  woollen. 

Water  froze  immediately  if  left  standing  in  bed- 
rooms. One  diary,  written  in  Marshfield,  Massachu- 
setts, tells  of  a  basin  of  water  standing  on  the  bed- 
room hearth,  in  front  of  a  blazing  fire,  in  which  the 
water  froze  solid.  President  John  Adams  so  dreaded 
the  bleak  New  England  winter  and  the  ill-warmed 
houses  that  he  longed  to  sleep  like  a  dormouse 
every  year,  from  autumn  to  spring.  In  the  South- 
ern colonies,  during  the  fewer  cold  days  of  the  win- 
ter months,  the  temperature  was  not  so  low,  but 
the  houses  were  more  open  and  lightly  built  than 
in  the  North,  and  were  without  cellars,  and  had 
fewer  fireplaces ;  hence  the  discomfort  from  the 
cold  was  as  great,  if  not  the  positive  suffering. 

The  first  chilling  entrance  into  the  ice-cold  bed 
of  a  winter  bedroom  was  sometimes  mitigated  by 


J2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


heating  the  inner  sheets  with  a  warming-pan. 
This  usually  hung  by  the  side  of  the  kitchen  fire- 
place, and  when  used  was  filled  with 
hot  coals,  and  thrust  within  the  bed, 
and  constantly  and  rapidly  moved 
back  and  forth  to  keep  from  scorch- 
ing the  bed-linen.  The  warming-pan 
was  a  circular  metal  pan  about  a  foot 
in  diameter,  four  or  five  inches  deep, 
with  a  long  wooden  handle  and  a  per- 
forated metal  cover,  usually  of  copper 
or  brass,  which  was  kept  highly  pol- 
ished, and  formed,  as  it  hung  on  the 
wall,  one  of  the  cheerful  kitchen  discs 
to  reflect  the  light  of  the  glowing  fire. 
The  warming-pan  has  been  deemed  of 
sufficient  decorative  capacity  to  make 
it  eagerly  sought  after  by  collectors, 
and  a  great  room  of  one  of  these 
collectors  is  hung  entirely  around 
the  four  walls  with  a  frieze  of  warm- 
ing-pans. 

Many  of  our  New  England  poets 
have  given  us  glimpses  in  rhyme  of 
the  old-time  kitchen.  Lowell's  well- 
known  lines  are  vivid  enough  to  bear  never-dying 
quotation  :  — 


Warming-pan 


The  Kitchen  Fireside 


73 


"  A  fireplace  filled  the  rooms  one  side 
With  half  a  cord  of  wood  in  — 
There  warn't  no  stoves  (tell  comfort  died) 
To  bake  ye  to  a  puddin'. 

"  The  wa'nut  log  shot  sparkles  out 
Towards  the  pootiest  —  bless  her! 
An'  little  flames  danced  all  about 
The  ch  iny  on  the  dresser. 

"  Agin  the  chimbly  crooknecks  hung, 
An'  in  amongst  'em  rusted 
The  old  queen's-arm  that  granther  Young 
Fetched  back  from  Concord  busted." 

To  me  the  true  essence  of  the  old-time  fireside  is 
found  in  Whittier's  Snow-bound.  The  very  chimney, 
fireplace,  and  hearthstone  of  which  his  beautiful  lines 
were  written,  the  kitchen  of  Whittier's  boyhood's 
home,  at  East  Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  is  shown 
in  the  accompanying  illustration.  It  shows  a  swing- 
ing crane.  His  description  of  the  "  laying  the  fire  ,r 
can  never  be  equalled  by  any  prose  :  — 

u  We  piled  with  care  our  nightly  stack 
Of  wood  against  the  chimney  back  — 
The  oaken  log,  green,  huge,  and  thick, 
And  on  its  top  the  stout  back-stick  ; 
The  knotty  fore-stick  laid  apart, 
And  filled  between  with  curious  art 


74  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Kitchen  Fireplace  of  Whiltier's  Home 


The  ragged  brush ;  then  hovering  near, 
We  watched  the  first  red  blaze  appear, 
Heard  the  sharp  crackle,  caught  the  gleam 
On  whitewashed  wall  and  sagging  beam, 
Until  the  old,  rude-furnished  room 
Burst,  flower-like,  into  rosy  bloom." 

No  greater  picture  of  homely  contentment  could 
be  shown  than  the  following  lines  :  — 


"  Shut  in  from  all  the  world  without, 
We  sat  the  clean-winged  hearth  about, 


The  Kitchen  Fireside  yj 

Content  to  let  the  north  wind  roar 

In  baffled  rage  at  pane  and  door, 

While  the  red  logs  before  us  beat 

The  frost-line  back  with  tropic  heat ; 

And  ever,  when  a  louder  blast 

Shook  beam  and  rafter  as  it  passed, 

The  merrier  up  its  roaring  draught 

The  great  throat  of  the  chimney  laughed, 

The  house  dog  on  his  paws  outspread 

Laid  to  the  fire  his  drowsy  head, 

The  cat's  dark  silhouette  on  the  wall 

A  couchant  tiger's  seemed  to  fall ; 

And,  for  the  winter  fireside  meet, 

Between  the  andirons'  straddling  feet 

The  mug  of  cider  simmered  slow, 

And  apples  sputtered  in  a  row. 

And,  close  at  hand,  the  basket  stood 

With  nuts  from  brown  October's  woods. 

What  matter  how  the  night  behaved  ! 

What  matter  how  the  north  wind  raved  ! 

Blow  high,  blow  low,  not  all  its  snow 

Could  quench  our  hearth-fire's  ruddy  glow." 

Nor  can  the  passing  of  years  dim  the  ruddy  glow 
of  that  hearth-fire,  nor  the  charm  of  the  poem. 
The  simplicity  of  metre,  the  purity  of  wording,  the 
gentle  sadness  of  some  of  its  expressions,  make  us 
read  between  the  lines  the  deep  and  affectionate 
reminiscence  with  which  it  was  written. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   SERVING   OF  MEALS 

PERHAPS  no  greater  difference  exists  between 
any  mode  of  the  olden  times  and  that  of 
to-day,  than  can  be  seen  in  the  manner  of 
serving  the  meals  of  the  family.  In  the  first  place, 
the  very  dining-table  of  the  colonists  was  not  like 
our  present  ones ;  it  was  a  long  and  narrow  board, 
sometimes  but  three  feet  wide,  with  no  legs  attached 
to  it.  It  was  laid  on  supports  or  trestles,  shaped 
usually  something  like  a  saw-horse.  Thus  it  was 
literally  a  board,  and  was  called  a  table-board,  and 
the  linen  cover  used  at  meals  was  not  called  a  table- 
cloth, but  a  board-cloth  or  board-clothes. 

As  smoothly  sawed  and  finished  boards  were  not 
so  plentiful  at  first  in  the  colonies  as  might  naturally 
be  thought  when  we  remember  the  vast  encircling 
forests,  all  such  boards  were  carefully  treasured,  and 
used  many  times  to  avoid  sawing  others  by  the 
tedious  and  wearying  process  of  pit-sawing.  Hence 
portions  of  packing-boxes,  or  chests  which  had  car- 
ried stores  from  England  to  the  colonies,  were  made 

76 


The  Serving  of  Meals  yy 

into  table-boards.  One  such  oaken  table-board,  still 
in  existence,  has  on  the  under  side  in  quaint  lettering 
the  name  and  address  of  the  Boston  settler  to  whom 
the  original  packing-box  was  sent  in  1638. 

The  old-time  board-cloth  was  in  no  way  inferior 
in  quality  or  whiteness  to  our  present  table-linen  ; 
for  we  know  how  proud  colonial  wives  and  daughters 
were  of  the  linen  of  their  own  spinning,  weaving, 
and  bleaching.  The  linen  tablecloth  was  either  of 
holland,  huckaback,  dowlas,  osnaburg,  or  lockram 
—  all  heavy  and  comparatively  coarse  materials  — 
or  of  fine  damask,  just  as  to-day  ;  some  of  the  hand- 
some board-cloths  were  even  trimmed  with  lace. 

The  colonists  had  plenty  of  napkins  ;  more,  as  a 
rule,  than  families  of  corresponding  means  and  sta- 
tion own  to-day.  They  had  need  of  them,  for  when 
America  was  first  settled  forks  were  almost  unknown 
to  English  people  —  being  used  for  eating  in  luxu- 
rious Italy  alone,  where  travellers  having  seen  and 
found  them  useful  and  cleanly,  afterwards  introduced 
them  into  England.  So  hands  had  to  be  constantly 
employed  for  holding  food,  instead  of  the  forks 
we  now  use,  and  napkins  were  therefore  as  con- 
stantly necessary.  The  first  fork  brought  to 
America  was  for  Governor  John  Winthrop,  in 
Boston,  in  1633,  and  it  was  in  a  leather  case  with  a 
knife  and  a  bodkin.    If  the  governor  ate  with  a 


1 


78 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


fork  at  the  table,  he  was  doubtless  the  only  person 
in  the  colony  who  did  so.  Thirty  or  forty  years 
later  a  few  two-tined  iron  and  silver  forks  were 
brought  across  the  water,  and  used  in  New  York 
and  Virginia,  as  well  as  Massachusetts  ;  and  by  the 
end  of  the  century  they  had  come  into  scant  use 
at  the  tables  of  persons  of  wealth  and  fashion. 
The  first  mention  of  a  fork  in  Virginia  is  in  an 
inventory  dated  1677;  this  was  of  a  single  fork. 
The  salt-cellar,  or  saler,  as  it  was  first  called,  was  the 
centrepiece  of  the  table — "  Sett  in  the  myddys  of 
the  tabull,"  says  an  old  treatise  on  laying  the  table. 
It  was  often  large  and  high,  of  curious  device 
in  silver,  and  was  then   called   a  standing  salt. 

Guests  of  honor  were 
seated  "  above  the 
salt,"  that  is,  near  the 
end  of  the  table  where 
sat  the  host  and  host- 
ess side  by  side ;  while 
children  and  persons 
who  were  not  of 
much  dignity  or  ac- 
count as  guests  were 
placed  "  below  the  salt,"  that  is,  below  the  middle 
of  the  table. 

There  is  owned  by  Harvard  University,  and  here 


Harvard  Standing  Salt 


The  Serving  of  Meals  79 

shown  in  an  illustration,  "  a  great  silver  salt "  given 
to  the  college  in  1644,  when  the  new  seat  of  learn- 
ing was  but  eight  years  old.  At  the  table  it  divided 
graduates,  the  faculty,  and  such,  from  the  under- 
graduates. It  was  valued  at  £$  is.  3d.,  at  five 
shillings  an  ounce,  which  was  equal  to  a  hundred 
dollars  to-day;  a  rich  gift,  which  shows  to  me  the 
profound  affection  of  the  settlers  for  the  new  col- 
lege. It  is  inscribed  with  the  name  of  the  giver, 
Mr.  Richard  Harris.  It  is  of  simple  English 
design  well  known  during  that  century,  and  made 
in  various  sizes.  There  is  no  doubt  that  many  of 
similar  pattern,  though  not  so  heavy  or  so  rich, 
were  seen  on  the  tables  of  substantial  colonists. 
They  are  named  in  many  wills.  Often  a  small  pro- 
jecting arm  was  attached  to  one  side,  over  which  a 
folded  napkin  could  be  thrown  to  be  used  as  a 
cover;  for  the  salt-cellar  was  usually  kept  covered, 
not  only  to  preserve  cleanliness,  but  in  earlier  days 
to  prevent  the  ready  introduction  of  poison. 

There  are  some  very  entertaining  and  curious 
old  English  books  which  were  written  in  the  six- 
teenth century  to  teach  children  and  young  rustics 
correct  and  elegant  manners  at  the  table,  and  also 
helpful  ways  in  which  to  serve  others.  These  books 
are  called  The  Babees  Boke,  The  Soke  of  Nurture, 
The  Soke  of  Curteseye,  etc.,  and  with  the  exception 


8o  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


of  variations  in  the  way  of  serving  a  dinner, 
and  a  few  obsolete  customs,  and  in  the  names 
and  shapes  and  materials  of  the  different  dishes, 
plates,  etc.,  used  at  the  table,  these  books  are 
just  as  instructive  and  sensible  to-day  as  then. 
From  them  we  learn  that  the  only  kind  of  table 
furnishings  used  at  that  time  were  cups  to  drink 
out  of;  spoons  and  knives  to  eat  with;  chafing- 
dishes  to  serve  hot  food;  chargers  for  display  and 
for  serving  large  quantities  of  food  ;  salt-cellars,  and 
trenchers  for  use  as  plates.  There  were  very  few 
other  table  appointments  used  on  any  English  table, 
either  humble  or  great,  when  the  Pilgrims  landed  at 
Plymouth. 

One  of  the  most  important  articles  for  setting  the 
table  was  the  trencher.  These  were  made  of  wood, 
and  often  were  only  a  block  of  wood,  about  ten  or 
twelve  inches  square  and  three  or  four  deep,  hol- 
lowed down  into  a  sort  of  bowl  in  the  middle.  In 
this  the  food  was  placed, — porridge,  meat,  vegetables, 
etc.  Each  person  did  not  have  even  one  of  these 
simple  dishes;  usually  two  children,  or  a  man  and 
his  wife,  ate  out  of  one  trencher.  This  was  a  cus- 
tom in  England  for  many  years;  and  some  very 
great  people,  a  duke  and  his  wife,  not  more  than 
a  century  and  a  half  ago,  sat  side  by  side  at  the 
table  and  ate  out  of  one  plate  to  show  their  unity 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


81 


and  affection.  It  is  told  of  an  old  Connecticut 
settler,  a  deacon,  that  as  he  had  a  wood-turning 
mill,  he  thought  he  would  have  a  trencher  apiece 
for  his  children.  So  he  turned  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  round  trenchers  in  his  mill.  For  this  his 
neighbors  deemed  him  deeply  extravagant  and  put- 
ting on  too  many  airs,  both  as  to  quantity  and 
quality,  since  square  trenchers,  one  for  use  by  two 
persons,  were  good  enough  for  any  one,  even  a  dea- 
con. So  great  a  warrior  and  so  prominent  a  man 
in  the  colony  as  Miles  Standish  used  wooden 
trenchers  at  the  table,  as  also  did  all  the  early 
governors.  Nor  did  they  disdain  to  name  them  in 
their  wills,  as  valued  household  possessions.  For 
many  years  college  boys  at  Harvard  ate  out  of 
wooden  trenchers  at  the  college  mess-table. 

I  have  seen  a  curious  old  table  top,  or  table- 
board,  which  permitted  diners  seated  at  it  to  dis- 
pense with  trenchers  or  plates.  It  was  of  heavy 
oak  about  six  inches  thick,  and  at  intervals  of  about 
eighteen  inches  around  its  edge  were  scooped  out 
deep,  bowl-shaped  holes  about  ten  inches  in  diameter, 
in  which  each  individual's  share  of  the  dinner  was 
placed.  After  each  meal  the  top  was  lifted  off  the 
trestles,  thoroughly  washed  and  dried,  and  was  ready 
for  the  next  meal. 

Poplar-wood  is  an  even,  white,  and  shining  wood* 

G 


82  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Until  the  middle  of  this  century  poplar-wood 
trenchers  and  plates  were  used  on  the  table  in  Ver- 
mont, and  were  really  attractive  dishes.  From 
earliest  days  the  Indians  made  and  sold  many 
bowls  and  trenchers  of  maple-wood  knots.  One 
of  these  bowls,  owned  by  King  Philip,  is  at  the 
rooms  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  in 
Boston.  Old  wooden  trenchers  and  "  Indian  bowls  " 
can  be  seen  at  the  Memorial   Hall  in  Deerfield. 


Wooden  Trenchers,  Spoons,  Noggin,  Caster,  and  Dishes 


Bottles  were  made  also  of  wood,  and  drinking-cups 
and  "  noggins/'  which  were  a  sort  of  mug  with  a 
handle.  Wood  furnished  many  articles  for  the 
table  to  the  colonist,  just  as  it  did  in  later  days  on 
our  Western  frontiers,  where  trenchers  of  wood 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


83 


and  plates  of  birch-bark  were  seen  in  every  log- 
cabin. 

The  word  tankard  was   originally  applied  to  a 
heavy  and  large  vessel  of 
wood  banded  with  metal, 
in  which  to  carry  water. 
Smaller  wooden  drinking 
tankards    were  subse- 
quently made  and  used 
throughout  Europe, 
and  were  occasionally 
brought  here  by  the 
colonists.  The  plainly 
shaped  wooden  tank- 
ard, made  of  staves 
and  hoops  and  here 
shown,  is  from  the 
collection  at  Deer- 
field     Me-  I 
morial  Hall.  | 
It  was  found 
in  the  house 
of  Rev.  Eli 
Moody.    These  com- 
monplace tankards  of 

staves  were  not  so  rare  as  the  beautiful  carved  and 
hooped  tankard  which  is  here  pictured,  and  which  is 


Wooden  Tankard 


84  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Samuel  Bowne  Duryea,  of 
Brooklyn.  I  have  seen  a  few  other  quaintly  carved 
ones,  black  with  age,  in  American  families  of  Hugue- 
not descent ;  these  were  apparently  Swiss  carvings. 


Carved  Wooden  Tankard 


The  chargers,  or  large  round  platters  found  on 
every  dining-table,  were  of  pewter.  Some  were  so 
big  and  heavy  that  they  weighed  five  or  six  pounds 
apiece.    Pewter  is  a  metal  never  seen  for  modern 


The  Serving  of  Meals  85 

table  furnishing,  or  domestic  use  in  any  form  to- 
day, but  in  colonial  times  what  was  called  a  gar- 
nish of  pewter,  that  is,  a  full  set  of  pewter  platters, 
plates,  and  dishes,  was  the  pride  of  every  good 
housekeeper,  and  also  a  favorite  wedding  gift.  It 
was  kept  as  bright  and  shining  as  silver.  One  of  the 
duties  of  children  was  to  gather  a  kind  of  horse-tail 
rush  which  grew  in  the  marshes,  and  because  it  was 
used  to  scour  pewter,  was  called  scouring-rush. 

Pewter  bottles  of  various  sizes  were  sent  to  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  in  1629.  Governor 
Endicott  had  one,  but  they  were  certainly  far  from 
common.  Dram  cups,  wine  mugs,  and  funnels  of 
pewter  were  also  occasionally  seen,  but  scarcely 
formed  part  of  ordinary  table  furnishings.  Metheg- 
lin  cans  and  drinking-mugs  of  pewter  were  found 
on  nearly  every  table.  Pewter  was  used  until  this 
century  in  the  wealthiest  homes,  both  in  the  North 
and  South,  and  was  preferred  by  many  who  owned 
rich  china.  Among  the  pewter-lovers  was  the  Revo- 
lutionary patriot,  John  Hancock,  who  hated  the 
clatter  of  the  porcelain  plates. 

Porringers  of  pewter,  and  occasionally  of  silver, 
were  much  used  at  the  table,  chiefly  for  children  to 
eat  from.  These  were  a  pretty  little  shallow  cir- 
cular dish  with  a  flat-pierced  handle.  Some  had  a 
"  fish-tail "   handle ;   these  are  said  to  be  Dutch. 


86  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


"The  porringers  that  in  a  row- 
Hung  high  and  made  a  glittering  show  " 


These  porringers  were  in  many  sizes,  from  tiny  little 
ones  two  inches  in  diameter  to  those  eight  or  nine 
inches  across.  When  not  in  use  many  house- 
keepers kept  them  hanging  on  hooks  on  the  edge 
of  a  shelf,  where  they  formed  a  pretty  and  cheerful 
decoration.    The  poet  Swift  says:  — 

"The  porringers  that  in  a  row 

Hung  high  and  made  a  glittering  show." 

It  should  be  stated  that  the  word  porringer,  as 
used  by  English  collectors,  usually  refers  to  a  deep 
cup  with  a  cover  and  two  handles,  while  what  we 
call  porringers  are  known  to  these  collectors  as 
bleeding-basins   or  tasters.     Here  we   apply  the 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


87 


term  taster,  or  wine-taster,  to  a  small,  shallow  silver 
cup  with  bosses  in  the  bottom  to  reflect  the  light 
and  show  the  color  and  quality  of  wine.  I  have 
often  seen  the  item  wine-taster  in  colonial  inven- 
tories and  wills,  but  never  bleeding-basin ;  while 
porringers  were  almost  universal  on  such  lists. 
Some  families  had  a  dozen.  I  have  found  fifteen 
in  one  old  New  England  farmhouse.  The  small 
porringers  are  sometimes  called  posnets,  which  is 
an  old-time  word  that  may  originally  have  referred 
to  a  posset-cup. 

"  Spoons,"  says  the  learned  archaeologist,  La- 
borde,  "  if  not  as  old  as  the  world,  are  as  old  as 
soup."  All  the  colonists  had  spoons,  and  certainly 
all  needed  them,  for  at  that  time  much  of  their  food 
was  in  the  form  of  soup  and  "spoon-meat,"  such 
as  had  to  be  eaten  with  spoons  when  there  were  no 
forks.  Meat  was  usually  made  into  hashes  or 
ragouts ;  thick  stews  and  soups  with  chopped  vege- 
tables and  meats  were  common,  as  were  hotch-pots. 
The  cereal  foods,  which  formed  so  large  a  part  of 
English  fare  in  the  New  World,  were  more  frequently 
boiled  in  porridge  than  baked  in  loaves.  Many  of 
the  spoons  were  of  pewter.  Worn-out  pewter  plates 
and  dishes  could  be  recast  into  new  pewter  spoons. 
The  moulds  were  of  wood  or  iron.  The  spoon 
mould  of  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Greenfield, 


88 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Massachusetts,  named  Martindale,  is  here  shown 
with  a  pewter  spoon.  In  this  mould  all  his  spoons 
and  those  of  his  neighbors  were  cast.  It  is  now  in 
the  Deerfield  Memorial  Hall. 


Pewter  Spoon  and  Spoon  Mould 


A  still  more  universal  spoon  material  was  alchymy, 
also  called  occamy,  alcamy,  arkamy,  etc.,  a  metal 
never  used  now,  which  was  made  of  a  mixture  of 
pan-brass  and  arsenicum.  Wooden  spoons,  too, 
were  always  seen.  In  Pennsylvania  and  New  York 
laurel  was  called  spoonwood,  because  the  Indians 
made  pretty  white  spoons  from  that  wood  to  sell  to 
the  colonists.  Horn  was  an  appropriate  and  available 
material  for  spoons.  Many  Indian  tribes  excelled  as 
they  do  to-day  in  the  making  of  horn  spoons.  The 
vulgar  affirmation,  "  By  the  great  horn  spoon,"  has 
perpetuated  their  familiar  use. 

Every  family  of  any  considerable  possessions  or 
owning  good  household  furnishings  had  a  few  silver 
spoons;  nearly  every  person  owned  at  least  one. 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


At  the  time  America  was  settled  the  common  form 
of  silver  spoon  in  England  had  what  was  known  as  a 
baluster  stem  and  a  seal  head;  the  assay  mark  was 
in  the  inner  part  of  the  bowl.  But  the  fashion  was 
just  changing,  and  a  new  and  much  altered  form 
was  introduced  which  was  made  in  large  numbers 
until  the  opening  reign  of  George  I.  This  shape 
was  the  very  one  without  doubt  in  which  many  of 
the  spoons  of  the  first  colonists  were  made  ;  and 
wherever  such  spoons  are  found,  if  they  are  genuine 


Five  Types  of  Spoons 


antiques,  they  may  safely  be  assigned  a  date  earlier 
than  17 14.  The  handle  was  flat  and  broad  at 
the  end,  where  it  was  cleft  in  three  points  which 


90  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


were  turned  up,  that  is,  not  toward  the  back  of  the 
spoon.  This  was  known  as  the  "  hind's-foot 
handle."  The  bowl  was  a  perfectly  regular  ellipse 
and  was  strengthened  by  continuing  the  handle  in  a 
narrow  tongue  or  rat-tail,  which  ran  down  the  back 
of  the  bowl.  The  succeeding  fashion,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  had  a  longer  elliptical 
bowl.  The  end  of  the  handle  was  rounded  and 
turned  up  at  the  end,  and  it  had  a  high  sharp  ridge 
down  the  middle.  This  was  known  as  the  old 
English  shape,  and  was  in  common  use  for  half  a 
century.  About  the  period  of  our  Revolutionary 
War  a  shape  nearly  like  the  one  in  ordinary  present 
use  became  the  mode  ;  the  bowl  became  egg-shaped, 
and  the  end  of  the  handle  was  turned  down  instead 
of  up.  The  rat-tail,  which  extended  down  the  back 
of  the  bowl,  was  shortened  into  a  drop.  Apostle 
spoons,  and  monkey  spoons  for  extraordinary  use 
were  occasionally  made,  and  a  few  are  still  pre- 
served ;  examples  of  five  types  of  spoons  are  shown 
from  the  collection  of  Edward  Holbrook,  Esq.,  of 
New  York. 

Families  of  consequence  had  usually  a  few  pieces 
of  silver  besides  their  spoons  and  the  silver  salt. 
Some  kind  of  a  drinking-cup  was  the  usual  form. 
Persons  of  moderate  means  often  owned  a  silver 
cup.    I  have  seen  in  early  inventories  and  lists  the 


The  Serving  of  Meals  91 

names  of  a  large  variety  of  silver  vessels  :  tankards, 
beer-bowls,  beakers,  flagons,  wine  cups,  wine  bowls 
wine  cans,  tasters,  caudle-cups,  posset-cups,  dram- 


Dutch  Silver  Tankard 

cups,  punch-bowls,  tumblers,  mugs,  dram  bottles, 
two-eared  cups,  and  flasks.  Virginians  and  Mary- 
landers  in  the  seventeenth  century  had  much  more 
silver  than  New  Englanders.    Some  Dutch  mer- 


92  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


chants  had  ample  amounts.  It  was  deemed  a  good 
and  safe  investment  for  spare  money.  Bread- 
baskets, salvers,  muffineers,  chafing-dishes,  casters, 
milk  pitchers,  sugar  boxes,  candlesticks,  appear  in 
inventories  at  the  end  of  the  century.  A  tankard 
or  flagon,  even  if  heavy  and  handsome,  would  be 
placed  on  the  table  for  every-day  use ;  the  other 
pieces  were  usually  set  on  the  cupboard's  head  for 
ornament. 

The  handsome  silver  tankard  owned  by  Sarah 
Jansen  de  Rapelje  is  here  shown.  She  was  the  first 
child  of  European  parents  born  in  New  Netherland. 
The  tankard  was  a  wedding  gift  from  her  husband, 
and  a  Dutch  wedding  scene  is  graven  on  the  lid. 

There  was  a  great  desire  for  glass,  a  rare  novelty 
to  many  persons  at  the  date  of  colonization.  The 
English  were  less  familiar  with  its  use  than  settlers 
who  came  from  Continental  Europe.  The  establish- 
ment of  glass  factories  was  attempted  in  early  days 
in  several  places,  chiefly  to  manufacture  sheet- 
glass,  but  with  slight  success.  Little  glass  was 
owned  in  the  shape  of  drinking-vessels,  none  used 
generally  on  the  table,  I  think,  during  the  first  few 
years.  Glass  bottles  were  certainly  a  great  rarity, 
and  were  bequeathed  with  special  mention  in  wills, 
and  they  are  the  only  form  of  glass  vessel  named. 
The  earliest  glass  for  table  use  was  greenish  in 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


93 


Colonial  Glass  Bottles 


color,  like  coarse  bottle  glass,  and  poor  in  quality, 
sometimes  decorated  in  crude  designs  in  a  tew  colors. 
Bristol  glass,  in  the  shape  of  mugs  and  plates,  was 
next  seen.  It  was  opaque,  a  milky  white  color,  and 
was  coarsely  decorated  with  verifiable  colors  in  a 
few  lines  of  red,  green,  yellow,  or  black,  occasionally 
with  initials,  dates,  or  Scriptural  references. 

Though  shapes  were  varied,  and  the  number  was 
generally  plentiful,  there  was  no  attempt  made  to 
give  separate  drinking-cups  of  any  kind  to  each 
individual  at  the  table.  Blissfully  ignorant  of  the 
existence  or  presence  of  microbes,  germs,  and  bac- 
teria, our  sturdy  and  unsqueamish  forbears  drank 
contentedly  in   succession   from    a   single  vessel, 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


which  was  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  and  lip 
to  lip,  around  the  board.  Even  when  tumbler- 
shaped  glasses  were  seen  in  many  houses,  —  flip- 
glasses,  they  were  called,  —  they  were  of  communal 
size,  —  some  held  a  gallon,  —  and  all  drank  from  the 
same  glass.  The  great  punch-bowl,  not  a  very 
handy  vessel  to  handle  when  filled  with  punch, 
was  passed  up  and  down  as  freely  as  though  it 
were  a  loving-cup,  and  all  drank  from  its  brim. 
At  college  tables,  and  even  at  tavern  boards,  where 
table  neighbors  might  be  strangers,  the  flowing  bowl 


Old  Spanish  and  English  Glasses,  Iron  Loggerheads,  and  Wooden  Toddy  Sticks 


and  foaming  tankard  was  passed  serenely  from  one 
to  another,  and  replenished  to  pass  again. 

Leather  was  perhaps  the  most  curious  material 


The  Serving  of  Meals  95 

used.  Pitchers,  bottles,  and  drinking-cups  were 
made  of  it.  Great  jugs  of  heavy  black  leather, 
waxed  and  bound,  and  tipped  with  silver,  were 
used  to  hold  metheglin,  ale,  and  beer,  and  were  a 
very  substantial,  and  at  times  a  very  handsome  ves- 


Black  Jacks 

sel.  The  finest  examples  I  have  ever  seen  are  here 
represented.  The  stitches  and  waxed  thread  at  the 
base  and  on  the  handles  can  plainly  be  perceived. 
They  are  bound  with  a  rich  silver  band,  and  have 
a  silver  shield  bearing  a  date  of  gift  to  Samuel 
Brenton  in  1778;  but  they  are  probably  a  century 
older  than  that  date.  They  are  the  property  by 
inheritance  of  Miss  Rebecca  Shaw,  aged  ninety-six 
years,  of  Wickford,  Rhode  Island. 


96 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  use  of  these  great  leather  jacks,  in  a  clum- 
sier form  than  here  shown,  led  to  the  amusing  mis- 
take of  a  French  traveller,  that  the  English  drank 
their  ale  out  of  their  boots.  These  leather  jugs 
were  commonly  called  black  jacks,  and  the  larger 
ones  were  bombards.  Giskin  was  still  another  and 
rarer  name. 

Drinking-cups  were  sometimes  made  of  horn.  A 
handsome  one  has  been  used  since  colonial  days  on 
Long  Island  for  "  quince  drink,''  a  potent  mixture 
of  hot  rum,  sugar,  and  quince  marmalade,  or  pre- 
serves. It  has  a  base  of  silver,  a  rim  of  silver,  and 
a  cover  of  horn  tipped  with  silver.  A  stirrup-cup 
of  horn,  tipped  with  silver,  was  used  to  "  speed  the 
parting  guest."  Occasionally  the  whole  horn,  in 
true  mediaeval  fashion,  was  used  as  a  drinking-cup. 
Often  they  were  carved  with  considerable  skill,  as 
the  beautiful  ones  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  A.  G. 
Richmond,  of  Canajoharie,  New  York. 

Gourds  were  plentiful  on  the  farm,  and  gathered 
with  care,  that  the  hard-shelled  fruit  might  be 
shaped  into  simple  drinking-cups.  In  Elizabeth's 
time  silver  cups  were  made  in  the  shape  of  these 
gourds.  The  ships  that  brought  "lemmons  and  ray- 
sins  of  the  sun  "  from  the  tropics  to  the  colonists, 
also  brought  cocoanuts.  Since  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury the  shells  of  cocoanuts  have  been  mounted 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


97 


with  silver  feet  and  "  covercles  "  in  a  goblet  shape, 
and  been  much  sought  after  by  Englishmen. 
Mounted  in  pewter,  and  sometimes  in  silver,  or 
simply  shaped 
with  a  wooden 
handle  attached, 
the  shell  of  the 
cocoanut  was  a 
favorite  among 
the  English  set- 
tlers. To  this 
day  one  of  the 
cocoanut - s  hell 
cups,  or  dippers, 
is  a  favorite 
drinking-cup  of 
many.  A  hand- 
some cocoa- 
nut  goblet, 
richly  mounted 
in  silver,  is 
shown  in  the 
accompanying 

illustration.  It  was  once  the  property  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary patriot,  John  Hancock,  and  is  now  in  the 
custody  of  the  Bostonian  Society,  at  the  Old  State 
House,  in  Boston,  Massachusetts. 


Silver-mounted  Cocoanut  Drinking-cup 


H 


98 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Popular  drinking-mugs  of  the  English,  from 
which  specially  they  drank  their  mead,  metheglin, 

and  ale,  were  the  stone- 
ware jugs    which  were 
made   in  Germany  and 
England,    in    the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth 
centuries,  in  great  num- 
bers.  An  English  writer, 
in   1579,  spoke  of  the 
English  custom  of  drink- 
ing from  "  pots  of  earth, 
of  sundry  colors  and 
moulds,  whereof 
many  are  garnished 
with  silver,  or  least- 
wise with  pewter." 
Such  a  piece  of 
stoneware  is  the 
oldest  authenti- 
cated drinking- 
jug  in  this  country, 
which  was  brought 
here  and   used  by 
English  colonists.     It  was  the  property  of  Gov- 
ernor John  Winthrop,  who  came  to   Boston  in 
1630,  and  now  belongs  to  the  American  Antiqua- 


Winthrop  Jug- 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


99 


rian  Society,  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  It 
stands  eight  inches  in  height,  is  apparently  of  Ger- 
man Gresware,  and  is  heavily  mounted  in  silver. 
The  lid  is  engraved  with  a  quaint  design  of  Adam 
and  Eve  and  the  tempting  serpent  in  the  apple- 
tree.  It  was  a  gift  to  John  Winthrop's  father 
from  his  sister,  Lady  Mildmay,  in  1607,  and  was 
then,  and  is  still  now,  labelled,  "  a  stone  Pot  tipped 
and  covered  with  a  Silver 
Lydd."  Many  other  Bos- 
ton colonists  had  similar 
"  stone  juggs,"  "  fflanders 
juggs,"  "tipt  juggs/ 
What  were  known 
as  "Fulham  juggs" 
were  also  much 
prized.  The  most 
interesting  ones  are 
the  Georgius  Rex 
jugs,  those  marked 
with  a  crown,  the 
initials  G.  R.,  or  a 
medallion  head  of 
the  first  of  the  Eng- 
lish Georges.  I 
know  one  of  these  jugs  which  has  a  Revolutionary 
bullet  imbedded  in  its  tough  old  side,  and  is  not 


Georgius  Rex  Jug 


ioo  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


even  cracked.  Many  of  them  had  pewter  or  silver 
lids,  which  are  now  missing.  Some  have  the  curi- 
ous hound  handle  which  was  so  popular  with  Eng- 
lish potters. 

There  was  no  china  in  common  use  on  the  table, 
and  little  owned  even  by  persons  of  wealth  through- 
out the  seventeenth  century,  either  in  England  or 
America.  Delft  ware  was  made  in  several  factories 
in  Holland  at  the  time  the  Dutch  settled  in  New 
Netherland  ;  but  even  in  the  towns  of  its  manufact- 
ure it  was  not  used  for  table  ware.  The  pieces 
were  usually  of  large  size,  what  were  called  state 
pieces,  for  cabinet  and  decorative  purposes.  The 
Dutch  settlers,  however,  had  "  purslin  cupps  "  and 
earthen  dishes  in  considerable  quantities  toward  the 
end  of  the  century.  The  earthen  was  possibly 
Delft  ware,  and  the  "  Purslin  "  India  china,  which 
by  that  time  was  largely  imported  to  Holland. 
Some  Portuguese  and  Spanish  pottery  was  imported, 
but  was  not  much  desired,  as  it  was  ill  fired  and 
perishable.  It  was  not  until  Revolutionary  times 
that  china  was  a  common  table  furnishing ;  then  it 
began  to  crowd  out  pewter.  The  sudden  and 
enormous  growth  of  East  India  commerce,  and  the 
vast  cargoes  of  Chinese  pottery  and  porcelain  wares 
brought  to  American  ports  soon  gave  ample  china 
to  every  housewife.      In  the    Southern  colonies 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


IOI 


beautiful  isolated  pieces  of  porcelain,  such  as  vast 
punch-bowls,  often  were  found  in  the  homes  of 
opulent  planters  ;  but  there,  as  in  the  North,  the 
first  china  for  general  table  use  was  the  handleless 
tea-cups,  usually  of  some  Canton  ware,  which  crept 
with  the  fragrant  herb  into  every  woman's  heart  — 
both  welcome  Oriental  waifs. 

It  may  well  be  imagined  that  this  long  narrow 
table  —  with  a  high  salt-cellar  in  the  middle,  with 
clumsy  wooden  trenchers  for  plates,  with  round 
pewter  platters  heaped  high  with  the  stew  of  meat 
and  vegetables,  with  a  great  noggin  or  two  of  wood, 
a  can  of  pewter,  or  a  silver  tankard  to  drink  from, 
with  leather  jacks  to  hold  beer  or  milk,  with  many 
wooden  or  pewter  and  some  silver  spoons,  but  no 
forks,  no  glass,  no  china,  no  covered  dishes,  no 
saucers  —  did  not  look  much  like  our  dinner  tables 
to-day. 

Even  the  seats  were  different;  there  were  seldom 
chairs  or  stools  for  each  person.  A  long  narrow 
bench  without  a  back,  called  a  form,  was  placed  on 
each  side  of  the  table.  Children  in  many  house- 
holds were  not  allowed  to  sit,  even  on  these  uncom- 
fortable forms,  while  eating.  Many  times  they  had 
to  stand  by  the  side  of  the  table  during  the  entire 
meal ;  in  old-fashioned  families  that  uncomfortable 
and  ungracious  custom  lasted  till  this  century.  I 


102 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


know  of  children  not  fifty  years  ago  standing  thus 
at  all  meals  at  the  table  of  one  of  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  He  had  a  bountiful  table,  was  a 
hospitable  entertainer  and  well-known  epicure  ; 
but  children  sat  not  at  his  board.  Each  stood  at 
his  own  place  and  had  to  behave  with  decorum  and 
eat  in  entire  silence.  In  some  families  children 
stood  behind  their  parents  and  other  grown  persons, 
and  food  was  handed  back  to  them  from  the  table  — 
so  we  are  told.  This  seems  closely  akin  to  throw- 
ing food  to  an  animal,  and  must  have  been  among 
people  of  very  low  station  and  social  manners. 

In  other  houses  they  stood  at  a  side-table  ;  and, 
trencher  in  hand,  ran  over  to  the  great  table  to  be 
helped  to  more  food  when  their  first  supply  was 
eaten. 

The  chief  thought  on  the  behavior  of  children  at 
the  table,  which  must  be  inferred  from  all  the  ac- 
counts we  have  of  those  times  is  that  they  were  to 
eat  in  silence,  as  fast  as  possible  (regardless  of  indi- 
gestion), and  leave  the  table  as  speedily  as  might  be. 
In  a  little  book  called  A  Pretty  Little  Pocket  Book, 
printed  in  America  about  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
I  found  a  list  of  rules  for  the  behavior  of  children 
at  the  table  at  that  date.  They  were  ordered  never 
to  seat  themselves  at  the  table  until  after  the  bless- 
ing had  been  asked,  and  their  parents  told  them  to 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


be  seated.  They  were  never  to  ask  for  anything  on 
the  table  ;  never  to  speak  unless  spoken  to  ;  always 
to  break  the  bread,  not  to  bite  into  a  whole  slice ; 
never  to  take  salt  except  with  a  clean  knife ;  not  to 
throw  bones  under  the  table.  One  rule  read : 
"Hold  not  thy  knife  upright,  but  sloping;  lay  it 
down  at  right  hand  of  the  plate,  with  end  of  blade 
on  the  plate."  Another,  "  Look  not  earnestly  at 
any  other  person  that  is  eating."  When  children 
had  eaten  all  that  had  been  given  them,  if  they 
were  "  moderately  satisfied,"  they  were  told  to 
leave  at  once  the  table  and  room. 

When  the  table-board  described  herein  was  set 
with  snowy  linen  cloth  and  napkins,  and  ample  fare, 
it  had  some  compensations  for  what  modern  luxuries 
it  lacked,  some  qualifications  for  inducing  content- 
ment superior  even  to  our  beautiful  table-settings. 
There  was  nothing  perishable  in  its  entire  furnish- 
ing :  no  frail  and  costly  china  or  glass,  whose  injury 
and  destruction  by  clumsy  or  heedless  servants 
would  make  the  heart  of  the  housekeeper  ache,  and 
her  anger  nourish  the  germs  of  ptomaines  within 
her.  There  was  little  of  intrinsic  value  to  watch 
and  guard  and  worry  about.  There  was  little  to 
make  extra  and  difficult  work,  —  no  glass  to  wash 
with  anxious  care,  no  elaborate  silver  to  clean,  — 
only  a  few  pieces  of  pewter  to  polish  occasionally, 


104  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


It  was  all  so  easy  and  so  simple  when  compared 
with  the  complex  and  varied  paraphernalia  and 
accompaniments  of  serving  of  meals  to-day,  that  it 
was  like  Arcadian  simplicity. 

In  Virginia  the  table  furnishings  were  similar  to 
those  in  New  England ;  but  there  were  greater  con- 
trasts in  table  appointments.  There  was  more 
silver,  and  richer  food ;  but  the  negro  servants  were 
so  squalid,  clumsy,  and  uncouth  that  the  incongru- 
ity made  the  meals  very  surprising  and,  at  times, 
repellent. 

When  dinners  of  some  state  were  given  in  the 
larger  towns,  the  table  was  not  set  or  served  like 
the  formal  dinner  of  to-day,  for  all  the  sweets,  pas- 
try, vegetables,  and  meats  were  placed  on  the  table 
together,  with  a  grand  "  conceit "  for  the  ornament 
in  the  centre.  At  one  period,  when  pudding  was 
part  of  the  dinner,  it  was  served  first.  Thus  an 
old-time  saying  is  explained,  which  always  seemed 
rather  meaningless,  "  I  came  early  —  in  pudding- 
time/'  There  was  considerable  formality  in  por- 
tioning out  the  food,  especially  in  carving,  which 
was  regarded  as  much  more  than  a  polite  accom- 
plishment, even  as  an  art.  I  have  seen  a  list  of 
sixty  or  seventy  different  terms  in  carving  to  be 
applied  with  exactness  to  different  fish,  fowl,  and 
meats.    An  old  author  says  :  — - 


The  Serving  of  Meals  105 

"  How  all  must  regret  to  hear  some  Persons,  even  of 
quality  say,  c  pray  cut  up  that  Chicken  or  Hen,'  or  c  Halve 
that  Plover '  \  not  considering  how  indiscreetly  they  talk, 
when  the  proper  Terms  are,  c  break  that  Goose,'  c  thrust 
that  Chicken,'  c  spoil  that  Hen,'  c  pierce  that  Plover.'  If 
they  are  so  much  out  in  common  Things,  how  much 
more  would  they  be  with  Herons,  Cranes,  and  Peacocks." 

It  must  have  required  good  judgment  and  con- 
stant watchfulness  never  to  say  "spoil  that  Hen," 
when  it  was  a  chicken ;  or  else  be  thought  hope- 
lessly ill-bred. 

There  were  few  state  dinners,  however,  served  in 
the  American  colonies,  even  in  the  large  cities ; 
there  were  few  dinners,  even,  of  many  courses ;  not 
always  were  there  many  dishes.  There  were  still 
seen  in  many  homes  more  primitive  forms  of 
serving  and  eating  meals,  than  were  indicated  by 
the  lack  of  individual  drinking-cups,  the  mutual 
use  of  a  trencher,  or  even  the  utilization  of  the 
table  top  as  a  plate.  In  some  homes  an  abundant 
dish,  such  as  a  vast  bowl  of  suppawn  and  milk,  a 
pumpkin  stewed  whole  in  its  shell,  or  a  savory 
and  mammoth  hotchpot  was  set,  often  smoking 
hot,  on  the  table-board;  and  from  this  well- 
filled  receptacle  each  hungry  soul,  armed  with  a 
long-handled  pewter  or  wooden  spoon,  helped  him- 
self, sometimes  ladling  his  great  spoonfuls  into  a 


106  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


trencher  or  bowl,  for  more  moderate  and  reserved 
after-consumption, — just  as  frequently  eating  directly 
from  the  bountiful  dish  with  a  spoon  that  came  and 
went  from  dish  to  mouth  without  reproach,  or 
thought  of  ill-manners.  The  accounts  of  travellers 
in  all  the  colonies  frequently  tell  of  such  repasts  ; 
some  termed  it  eating  in  the  fashion  of  the  Dutch. 
The  reports  of  old  settlers  often  recall  the  general 
dish ;  and  some  very  distinguished  persons  joined 
in  the  circle  around  it,  and  were  glad  to  get  it. 
Variety  was  of  little  account,  compared  to  quantity 
and  quality.  A  cheerful  hospitality  and  grateful 
hearts  filled  the  hollow  place  of  formality  and  ele- 
gance. 

By  the  time  that  newspapers  began  to  have  adver- 
tisements in  them  —  about  1750  —  we  find  many 
more  articles  for  use  at  the  table ;  but  often  the 
names  were  different  from  those  used  to-day.  Our 
sugar  bowls  were  called  sugar  boxes  and  sugar  pots  ; 
milk  pitchers  were  milk  jugs,  milk  ewers,  and  milk 
pots.  Vegetable  dishes  were  called  basins,  pud- 
ding dishes  twifflers,  small  cups  were  called  sneak 
cups. 

We  have  still  to-day  a  custom  much  like  one  of 
olden  times,  when  we  have  the  crumbs  removed 
from  our  tables  after  a  course  at  dinner.  Then  a 
voider  was  passed  around  the  table  near  the  close  of 


The  Serving  of  Meals 


the  dinner,  and  into  it  the  persons  at  the  table 
placed  their  trenchers,  napkins,  and  the  crumbs 
from  the  table.  The  voider  was  a  deep  wicker, 
wooden,  or  metal  basket.  In  the  Boke  of  Nurture, 
written  in  1577,  are  these  lines  :  — 

"  When  meate  is  taken  quyte  awaye 
And  Voyders  in  presence, 
Put  you  your  trenchour  in  the  same 

and  all  your  resydence. 
Take  you  with  your  napkin  &  knyfe 

the  croms  that  are  fore  the, 
'In  the  Voyder  your  Napkin  leave 
for  it  is  a  curtesye." 


CHAPTER  V 


FOOD    FROM    FOREST   AND  SEA 

THOUGH  all  the  early  explorers  and  travel- 
lers came  to  America  eager  to  find  pre- 
cious and  useful  metals,  they  did  not  dis- 
cover wealth  and  prosperity  underground  in  mines, 
but  on  the  top  of  the  earth,  in  the  woods  and  fields. 
To  the  forests*they  turned  for  food,  and  they  did  not 
turn  in  vain.  Deer  were  plentiful  everywhere,  and 
venison  was  offered  by  the  Indians  to  the  first  who 
landed  from  the  ships.  Some  families  lived  wholly 
on  venison  for  nine  months  of  the  year.  In  Vir- 
ginia were  vast  numbers  of  red  and  fallow  deer, 
the  latter  like  those  of  England,  except  in  the 
smaller  number  of  branches  of  the  antlers.  Thev 
were  so  devoid  of  fear  as  to  remain  undisturbed  by 
the  approach  of  men  ;  a  writer  of  that  day  says  : 
"  Hard  by  the  Fort  two  hundred  in  one  herd  have  been 
usually  observed."  They  were  destroyed  ruthlessly 
by  a  system  of  fire-hunting,  in  which  tracts  of  for- 
ests were  burned  over,  by  starting  a  continuous 
circle  of  fire  miles  around,  which  burnt  in  toward 

108 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea  109 

the  centre  of  the  circle;  thus  the  deer  were  driven 
into  the  middle,  and  hundreds  were  killed.  This 
miserable,  wholesale  slaughter  was  not  for  venison, 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  hides,  which  were  very 
valuable.  They  were  used  to  make  the  durable  and 
suitable  buckskin  breeches  and  jackets  so  much 
worn  by  the  settlers  ;  and  they  were  also  exported 
to  Europe  in  large  numbers.  A  tax  was  placed 
on  hides  for  the  support  of  the  beloved  William 
and  Mary  College. 

In  Georgia,  in  1735,  the  Indians  sold  a  deer 
for  sixpence.  Deer  were  just  as  abundant  in  the 
more  Northern  colonies.  At  Albany  a  stag  was 
sold  readily  by  the  Indians  for  a  jack-knife  or  a 
few  iron  nails.  The  deer  in  winter  came  and  fed 
from  the  hog-pens  of  Albany  swine.  Even  in 
1695,  a  quarter  of  venison  could  be  bought  in 
New  York  City  for  ninepence.  At  the  first  Mas- 
sachusetts Thanksgiving,  in  1621,  the  Indians 
brought  in  five  deer  to  the  colonists  for  their  feast. 
That  year  there  was  also  "  great  store  of  wild 
turkies."  These  beautiful  birds  of  gold  and  pur- 
ple bronze  were  at  first  plentiful  everywhere,  and 
were  of  great  weight,  far  larger  than  our  domestic 
turkeys  to-day.  They  came  in  flocks  of  a  hun- 
dred, Evelyn  says  of  three  hundred  on  the  Chesa- 
peake, and  they  weighed  thirty  or  forty  pounds 


no  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


each :  Josselyn  says  he  saw  one  weighing  sixty 
pounds.  William  Penn  wrote  that  turkeys  weigh- 
ing thirty  pounds  apiece  sold  in  his  day  and  colony 
for  a  shilling  only.  They  were  shy  creatures  and 
fled  inland  from  the  white  man,  and  by  1690  were 
rarely  shot  near  the  coast  of  New  England,  though 
in  Georgia,  in  1733,  they  were  plentiful  enough  and 
cheap  enough  to  sell  for  fourpence  apiece.  Flights 
of  pigeons  darkened  the  sky,  and  broke  down  the 
limbs  of  trees  on  which  they  lighted.  From  Maine 
to  Virginia  these  vast  flocks  were  seen.  Some  years 
pigeons  were  so  plentiful  that  they  were  sold  for  a 
penny  a  dozen  in  Boston.  Pheasant,  partridge, 
woodcock,  and  quail  abounded,  plover,  snipe,  and 
curlew  were  in  the  marsh-woods;  in  fact,  in  Virginia 
every  bird  familiar  to  Englishmen  at  home  was 
found  save  peacock  and  domestic  fowl. 

Wild  hare  and  squirrels  were  so  many  that  they 
became  pests,  and  so  much  grain  was  eaten  by  them 
that  bounties  were  paid  in  many  towns  for  the  heads 
of  squirrels.  County  treasuries  were  exhausted  by 
these  premiums.  The  Swedish  traveller,  Kalm, 
said  that  in  Pennsylvania  in  one  year,  1749,  ^8000 
was  paid  out  for  heads  of  black  and  gray  squirrels, 
at  threepence  a  head,  which  would  show  that  over 
six  hundred  thousand  were  killed. 

From  the  woods  came  a  sweet  food-store,  one 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea  1 1 1 


specially  grateful  when  sugar  was  so  scarce  and  so 
high-priced,  —  wild  honey,  which  the  colonists 
eagerly  gathered  everywhere  from  hollow  tree- 
trunks.  Curiously  enough,  the  traveller,  Kalm, 
insisted  that  bees  were  not  native  in  America,  but 
were  brought  over  by  the  English ;  that  the  Indians 
had  no  name  for  them  and  called  them  English  flies. 

Governor  Berkeley  of  Virginia,  writing  in  1706, 
called  the  maple  the  sugar-tree  ;  he  said  :  — 

"  The  Sugar-Tree  yields  a  kind  of  Sap  or  Juice  which 
by  boiling  is  made  into  Sugar.  This  Juice  is  drawn  out, 
by  wounding,  the  Trunk  of  the  Tree,  and  placing  a  Re- 
ceiver under  the  Wound.  It  is  said  that  the  Indians  make 
one  Pound  of  Sugar  out  of  eight  Pounds  of  the  Liquor. 
It  is  bright  and  moist  with  a  full  large  Grain,  the  Sweet- 
ness of  it  being  like  that  of  good  Muscovada." 

The  sugar-making  season  was  ever  hailed  with 
delight  by  the  boys  of  the  household  in  colonial 
days,  who  found  in  this  work  in  the  woods  a  won- 
derful outlet  for  the  love  of  wild  life  which  was 
strong  in  them.  It  had  in  truth  a  touch  of  going 
a-gypsying,  if  any  work  as  hard  as  sugaring-ofF 
could  have  anything  common  with  gypsy  life.  The 
maple-trees  were  tapped  as  soon  as  the  sap  began 
to  run  in  the  trunk  and  showed  at  the  end  of  the 
twigs  ;  this  was  in  late  winter  if  mild,  or  in  the  earli- 


U2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


est  spring.  A  notch  was  cut  in  the  trunk  of  the 
tree  at  a  convenient  height  from  the  ground,  usually 
four  or  five  feet,  and  the  running  sap  was  guided 
by  setting  in  the  notch  a  semicircular  basswood 
spout  cut  and  set  with  a  special  tool  called  a  tap- 
ping-gauge. In  earlier  days  the  trees  were  "  boxed/' 
that  is,  a  great  gash  cut  across  the  side  and  scooped 
out  and  down  to  gather  the  sap.  This  often  proved 
fatal  to  the  trees,  and  was  abandoned.  A  trough, 
usually  made  of  a  butternut  log  about  three  feet 
long,  was  dug  out,  Indian  fashion,  and  placed  under 
the  end  of  the  spout.  These  troughs  were  made 
deep  enough  to  hold  about  ten  quarts.  In  later 
years  a  hole  was  bored  in  the  tree  with  an  augur ; 
and  sap-buckets  were  used  instead  of  troughs. 

Sometimes  these  troughs  were  left  in  distant 
sugar-camps  from  year  to  year,  turned  bottom  side 
up,  through  the  summer  and  winter.  It  was  more 
thrifty  and  tidy,  however,  to  carry  them  home  and 
store  them.  When  this  was  done,  the  men  and  boys 
began  work  by  drawing  the  troughs  and  spouts 
and  provisions  to  the  woods  on  hand-sleds. 
Sometimes  a  mighty  man  took  in  a  load  on  his 
back.  It  is  told  of  John  Alexander  of  Brattleboro, 
Vermont,  that  he  once  went  into  camp  upon  snow- 
shoes  carrying  for  three  miles  one  five-pail  iron 
kettle,  two  sap-buckets,  an  axe  and  trappings,  a 


4 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea 


knapsack,  four  days'  provisions,  and  a  gun  and 
ammunition. 

The  master  of  ceremonies  —  the  owner  of  the 
camp  —  selected  the  trees  and  drove  the  spouts, 
while  the  boys  placed  the  troughs.  Then  the  snow 
had  to  be  shovelled  away  on  a  level  spot  about  eigh- 
teen or  twenty  feet  square,  in  which  strong  forked 
sticks  were  set  twelve  feet  apart.  Or  the  ground  was 
chosen  so  that  two  small  low-spreading  and  strong 
trees  could  be  trimmed  and  used  as  forks.  A  heavy 
green  stick  was  placed  across  from  fork  to  fork,  and 
the  sugaring-off  kettles,  sometimes  five  in  number, 
hung  on  it.  Then  dry  wood  had  to  be  gathered 
for  the  fires ;  hard  work  it  was  to  keep  them  con- 
stantly supplied.  It  was  often  cut  a  year  in  ad- 
vance. As  the  sap  collected  in  the  troughs  it  was 
gathered  in  pails  or  buckets  which,  hung  on  a  sap- 
yoke  across  the  neck,  were  brought  to  the  kettles 
and  the  sap  set  a-boiling  down.  When  there  was 
a  "good  run  of  sap,"  it  was  usually  necessary  to 
stay  in  the  camp  over  night.  Many  times  the 
campers  stayed  several  nights.  As  the  "good  run  " 
meant  milder  weather,  a  night  or  two  was  not  a  bit- 
ter experience ;  indeed,  I  have  never  heard  any  one 
speak  nor  seen  any  account  of  a  night  spent  in  a 
sugar-camp  except  with  keen  expressions  of  delight. 
If  possible,  the  time  was  chosen  during  a  term  of 
i 


114  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


moonlight ;  the  snow  still  covered  the  fields  and  its 
pure  shining  white  light  could  be  seen  through  the 
trees. 

"God  makes  sech  nights,  so  white  and  still 
Fer's  you  can  look  and  listen. 
Moonlight  an'  snow,  on  field  and  hill, 
All  silence  and  all  glisten." 

The  great  silence,  broken  only  by  steady  drop- 
ping of  the  sap,  the  crackle  of  blazing  brush,  and 
the  occasional  hooting  of  startled  owls ;  the  stars 
seen  singly  overhead  through  the  openings  of  the 
trees,  shining  down  the  dark  tunnel  as  bright  as 
though  there  were  no  moon ;  above  all,  the  clearness 
and  sweetness  of  the  first  atmosphere  of  spring,  — 
gave  an  exaltation  of  the  senses  and  spirit  which 
the  country  boy  felt  without  understanding,  and 
indeed  without  any  formulated  consciousness. 

If  the  camp  were  near  enough  to  any  group  of 
farmhouses  to  have  visitors,  the  last  afternoon  and 
evening  in  camp  was  made  a  country  frolic.  Great 
sled-loads  of  girls  came  out  to  taste  the  new  sugar, 
to  drop  it  into  the  snow  to  candy,  and  to  have  an 
evening  of  fun. 

Long  ere  the  full  riches  of  the  forests  were  tested 
the  colonists  turned  to  another  food-supply,  —  the 
treasures  of  the  sea. 

The  early  voyagers  and  colonists  came  to  the 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea  115 

coasts  of  the  New  World  to  find  gold  and  furs.  The 
gold  was  not  found  by  them  nor  their  children's 
children  in  the  land  which  is  now  the  United  States, 
till  over  two  centuries  had  passed  from  the  time  of 
the  settlement,  and  the  gold-mines  of  California 
were  opened.  The  furs  were  at  first  found  and 
profitably  gathered,  but  the  timid  fur-bearing  ani- 
mals were  soon  exterminated  near  the  settlements. 
There  was,  however,  a  vast  wealth  ready  for  the 
colonists  on  the  coast  of  the  New  World  which  was 
greater  than  gold,  greater  than  furs  ;  a  wealth  ever- 
obtainable,  ever-replenished,  ever-useful,  ever-sala- 
ble ;  it  was  fish.  The  sea,  the  rivers,  the  lakes, 
teemed  with  fish.  Not  only  was  there  food  for  the 
settlers,  but  for  the  whole  world,  and  all  Europe 
desired  fish  to  eat.  The  ships  of  the  early  discov- 
erer, Gosnold,  in  1602,  were  "pestered  with  cod." 
Captain  John  Smith,  the  acute  explorer,  famous  in 
history  as  befriended  by  Pocahontas,  went  to  New 
England,  in  16 14,  to  seek  for  whale,  and  instead  he 
fished  for  cod.  He  secured  sixty  thousand  in  one 
month;  and  he  wrote  to  his  countrymen,  "  Let  not 
the  meanness  of  the  word  fish  distaste  you,  for  it  will 
afford  as  good  gold  as  the  mines  of  Guiana  or 
Potosi,  with  less  hazard  and  charge,  and  more  cer- 
tainty and  facility."  This  promise  of  wealth  has 
proved  true  a  thousandfold.    Smith  wrote  home  to 


1 1 6  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


England  full  accounts  of  the  fisheries,  of  the  proper 
equipment  of  a  fishing-vessel,  of  the  methods  of 
fishing,  the  profits,  all  in  a  most  enticing  and  famil- 
iar style.  He  said  in  his  Description  of  New  Eng- 
land :  — 

"  What  pleasure  can  be  more  than  to  recreate  them- 
selves before  their  owne  doores  in  their  owne  boates,  upon 
the  Sea,  where  man,  woman,  and  childe,  with  a  small  hooke 
and  line  by  angling,  may  take  diverse  sorts  of  excellent  fish, 
at  their  pleasure  ?  And  is  it  not  pretty  sport  to  pull  up 
twopence,  sixpence,  or  twelvepence,  as  fast  as  you  can  hale 
and  veare  a  line  ?  If  a  man  worke  but  three  days  in  seaven 
hee  may  get  more  than  hee  can  spend  unless  hee  will  be 
excessive. 

"  Young  boyes  and  girles,  salvages,  or  any  other,  be  they 
never  such  idlers  may  turne,  carry,  and  returne  fish  without 
shame  or  either  great  pain :  hee  is  very  idle  that  is  past 
twelve  years  of  age  and  cannot  doe  so  much:  and  shee  is 
very  old  that  cannot  spin  a  thread  to  catch  them." 

His  accounts  and  similar  ones  were  so  much  read 
in  England  that  when  the  Puritans  asked  King 
James  of  England  for  permission  to  come  to  Amer- 
ica, and  the  king  asked  what  profit  would  be  found 
by  their  emigration,  he  was  at  once  answered,  "  Fish- 
ing." Whereupon  he  said  in  turn,  "  In  truth  'tis 
an  honest  trade;  'twas  the  apostles'  own  calling." 
Yet  in  spite  of  their  intent  to  fish,  the  first  English 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea 


117 


ships  came  but  poorly  provided  for  fishing,  and  the 
settlers  had  little  success  at  first  even  in  getting  fish 
for  their  own  food.  Elder  Brewster  of  Plymouth, 
who  had  been  a  courtier  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time, 
and  had  seen  and  eaten  many  rich  feasts,  had  noth- 
ing to  eat  at  one  time  but  clams.  Yet  he  could  give 
thanks  to  God  that  he  was  "  permitted  to  suck  of 
the  abundance  of  the  seas  and  the  treasures  hid  in 
the  sand."  The  Indian  Squanto  showed  the  Pil- 
grims many  practical  methods  of  fishing,  among 
them  one  of  treading  out  eels  from  the  brook  with 
his  feet  and  catching  them  with  his  hands.  And 
every  ship  brought  in  either  cod-hooks  and  lines, 
mackerel-hooks  and  lines,  herring-nets,  seines,  shark- 
hooks,  bass-nets,  squid-lines,  eel-pots,  coils  of  rope 
and  cable,  "  drails,  barbels,  pens,  gaffs,"  or  mussel- 
hooks. 

Josselyn,  in  his  New  England's  Rarities,  written 
in  1672,  enumerated  over  two  hundred  kinds  of 
fish  that  were  caught  in  New  England  waters. 

Lobsters  certainly  were  plentiful  enough  to  pre- 
vent starvation.  The  minister  Higginson,  writing 
of  lobsters  at  Salem,  said  that  many  of  them  weighed 
twenty-five  pounds  apiece,  and  that  "  the  least  boy 
in  the  plantation  may  catch  and  eat  what  he  will  of 
them."  In  1623,  when  the  ship  Anne  arrived  from 
England,  bringing  many  of  the  wives  and  children 


1 1 8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


of  the  Pilgrims  who  had  come  in  the  first  ships,  the 
only  feast  of  welcome  that  the  poor  husbands  had  to 
offer  the  newcomers  was  "  a  lobster  or  a  piece  of 
fish  without  bread  or  anything  else  but  a  cup  of 
spring  water." 

Patriarchal  lobsters  five  and  six  feet  long  were 
caught  in  New  York  Bay.  The  traveller,  Van  der 
Donck,  says  cc  those  a  foot  long  are  better  for  serv- 
ing at  table."  Truly  a  lobster  six  feet  long  would 
seem  a  little  awkward  to  serve  on  a  dinner  table. 
Eddis,  in  his  Letters  from  America,  written  in 
1792,  says  these  vast  lobsters  were  caught  in  New 
York  waters  until  Revolutionary  days,  when  "  since 
the  incessant  cannonading,  they  have  entirely  for- 
saken the  coast;  not  one  having  been  taken  or 
seen  since  the  commencement  of  hostilities."  Be- 
side these  great  shell-fish  the  giant  lobster  confined 
in  our  New  York  Aquarium  in  1897  seems  but  a 
dwarf.  In  Virginia  waters  lobsters  were  caught, 
and  vast  crabs,  often  a  foot  in  length  and  six  inches 
broad,  with  a  long  tail  and  many  legs.  One  of 
these  crabs  furnished  a  sufficient  meal  for  four 
men. 

From  the  gossiping  pages  of  the  Labadist  mis- 
sionaries who  came  to  America  in  1697  we  find 
hints  of  good  fare  in  oysters  in  Brooklyn. 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea  1 1 9 


"  Then  was  thrown  upon  the  fire,  to  be  roasted,  a  pail 
full  of  Gowanes  oysters  which  are  the  best  in  the  country. 
They  are  fully  as  good  as  those  of  England,  better  than 
those  we  eat  at  Falmouth.  I  had  to  try  some  of  them 
raw.  They  are  large  and  full,  some  of  them  not  less  than 
a  foot  long.  Others  are  young  and  small.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  great  quantities  of  them  everybody  keeps  the 
shells  for  the  burning  of  lime.  They  pickle  the  oysters 
in  small  casks  and  send  them  to  Barbados." 

Van  der  Donck  corroborates  the  foot-long  oysters 
seen  by  the  Labadist  travellers.  He  says  the 
"  large  oysters  roasted  or  stewed  make  a  good  bite," 
—  a  very  good  bite,  it  would  seem  to  us. 

Strachey,  in  his  Historie  of  Travaile  into  Virginia^ 
says  he  saw  oysters  in  Virginia  that  were  thirteen 
inches  long.  Fortunately  for  the  starving  Virgin- 
ians, oyster  banks  rose  above  the  surface  at  ebb-tide 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Elizabeth  River,  and  in  1609 
a  large  number  of  these  famished  Virginia  colonists 
found  in  these  oyster  banks  a  means  of  preservation 
of  life. 

As  might  be  expected  of  any  country  so  inter- 
sected with  arms  of  the  sea  and  fresh-water  streams, 
Virginia  at  the  time  of  settlement  teemed  with  fish. 
The  Indians  killed  them  in  the  brooks  by  striking 
them  with  sticks,  and  it  is  said  the  colonists  scooped 
them  up  in  frying-pans.    Horses  ridden  into  the 


120 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


rivers  stepped  on  the  fish  and  killed  them.  In  one 
cast  of  a  seine  the  governor,  Sir  Thomas  Dale, 
caught  five  thousand  sturgeon  as  large  as  cod. 
Some  sturgeon  were  twelve  feet  long.  The  works 
of  Captain  John  Smith,  Rolfe's  Relation,  and  other 
books  of  early  travellers,  all  tell  of  the  enormous 
amount  of  fish  in  Virginia. 

The  New  York  rivers  were  also  full  of  fish,  and 
the  bays;  their  plenty  in  New  Netherland  inspired 
the  first  poet  of  that  colony  to  rhyming  enumera- 
tion of  the  various  kinds  of  fish  found  there;  among 
them  were  sturgeon  —  beloved  of  the  Indians  and 
despised  of  Christians  ;  and  terrapin  —  not  despised 
by  any  one.  "  Some  persons,"  wrote  the  Dutch 
traveller,  Van  der  Donck,  in  1656,  "prepare  deli- 
cious dishes  from  the  water  terrapin,  which  is  lus- 
cious food."  The  Middle  and  Southern  states  paid 
equally  warm  but  more  tardy  tribute  to  the  terra- 
pin's reputation  as  luscious  food. 

While  other  fish  were  used  everywhere  for  food, 
cod  was  the  great  staple  of  the  fishing  industry. 
By  the  year  1633  Dorchester  and  Marblehead  had 
started  in  the  fisheries  for  trading  purposes.  Stur- 
geon also  was  caught  at  a  little  later  date,  and  bass 
and  alewives. 

Morton,  in  his  New  England  Canaan,  written  in 
1636,  says,  "  I  myself  at  the  turning  of  the  tyde  have 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea  121 


seen  such  multitudes  of  sea  bass  that  it  seemed  to 
me  that  one  might  goe  over  their  backs  dri-shod.,, 

The  regulation  of  fish-weirs  soon  became  an 
important  matter  in  all  towns  where  streams  let  ale- 
wives  up  from  the  sea.  The  New  England  min- 
isters took  a  hand  in  promoting  and  encouraging 
the  fisheries,  as  they  did  all  positive  social  move- 
ments and  commercial  benefits.  Rev.  Hugh  Peter 
in  Salem  gave  the  fisheries  a  specially  good  turn. 
Fishermen  were  excused  from  military  training, 
and  portions  of  the  common  stock  of  corn  were 
assigned  to  them.  The  General  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts exempted  "  vessels  and  stock "  from 
"  country  charges "  (which  were  taxes)  for  seven 
years.  Seashore  towns  assigned  free  lands  to  each 
boat  to  be  used  for  stays  and  flakes  for  drying.  As 
early  as  1640  three  hundred  thousand  dried  cod- 
fish were  sent  to  market  from  New  England. 

Codfish  consisted  of  three  sorts,  "  marchantable, 
middling,  and  refuse."  The  first  grade  was  sold 
chiefly  to  Roman  Catholic  Europe,  to  supply  the 
constant  demands  of  the  fast-days  of  that  religion, 
and  also  those  of  the  Church  of  England;  the 
second  was  consumed  at  home  or  in  the  merchant 
vessels  of  New  England ;  the  third  went  to  the 
negroes  of  the  West  Indies,  and  was  often  called 
Jamaica  fish.    The  dun-fish  or  dumb-fish,  as  the 


122  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


word  was  sometimes  written,  were  the  best;  so 
called  from  the  dun-color.  Fish  was  always  eaten 
in  New  England  for  a  Saturday  dinner;  and  Mr. 
Palfrey,  the  historian,  says  that  until  this  century 
no  New  England  dinner  on  Saturday,  even  a  for- 
mal dinner  party,  was  complete  without  dun-fish 
being  served. 

Of  course  the  first  fishing-vessels  had  to  be  built 
and  sent  from  England.  Some  carried  fifty  men. 
They  arrived  on  the  coast  in  early  spring,  and  by 
midsummer  sailed  home.  The  crew  had  for  wages 
one-third  share  of  the  fish  and  oil  ;  another  third 
paid  for  the  men's  food,  the  salt,  nets,  hooks,  lines, 
etc. ;  the  other  third  went  to  the  ship's  owners  for 
profit. 

This  system  was  not  carried  out  in  New  Eng- 
land. There,  each  fisherman  worked  on  "  his  own 
hook"  —  and  it  was  literally  his  own  hook;  for  a 
tally  was  kept  of  the  fish  caught  by  each  man,  and 
the  proceeds  of  the  trip  were  divided  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  fish  each  caught.  When  there 
was  a  big  run  of  fish,  the  men  never  stopped  to  eat 
or  sleep,  but  when  food  was  held  to  them  gnawed 
it  off  while  their  hands  were  employed  with  the  fish- 
lines.  With  every  fishing-vessel  that  left  Glouces- 
ter and  Marblehead,  the  chief  centres  of  the  fishing 
industries,  went  a  boy  of  ten  or  twelve  to  learn  to  be 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea 


123 


a  skilled  fisherman.  He  was  called  a  "  cut-tail/' 
for  he  cut  a  wedge-shaped  bit  from  the  tail  of  every 
fish  he  caught,  and  when  the  fish  were  sorted  out 
the  cut-tails  showed  the  boy's  share  of  the  profit. 

For  centuries,  fish  was  plentiful  and  cheap  in 
New  England.  The  traveller  Bennet  wrote  of 
Boston,  in  1740:  — 

"  Fish  is  exceedingly  cheap.  They  sell  a  fine  cod,  will 
weigh  a  dozen  pounds  or  more,  just  taken  out  of  the  sea 
for  about  twopence  sterling.  They  have  smelts,  too, 
which  they  sell  as  cheap  as  sprats  in  London.  Salmon, 
too,  they  have  in  great  plenty,  and  these  they  sell  for  about 
a  shilling  apiece  which  will  weigh  fourteen  or  fifteen 
pounds." 

Two  kinds  of  delicious  fish,  beloved,  perhaps, 
above  all  others  to-day,  —  salmon  and  shad, —  seem 
to  have  been  lightly  regarded  in  colonial  days. 
The  price  of  salmon  —  less  than  a  penny  a  pound 
—  shows  the  low  estimation  in  which  it  was  held  in 
the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  told 
that  farm-laborers  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Connecticut 
River  when  engaged  to  work  stipulated  that  they 
should  have  salmon  for  dinner  but  once  a  week. 

Shad  were  profoundly  despised ;  it  was  even  held 
to  be  somewhat  disreputable  to  eat  them  ;  and  the 
story  is  told  of  a  family  in  Hadley,  Massachusetts, 
who  were  about  to  dine  on  shad,  that,  hearing  a  knock 


124  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


at  the  door,  they  would  not  open  it  till  the  platter 
holding  the  obnoxious  shad  had  been  hidden.  At 
first  they  were  fed  chiefly  to  hogs.  Two  shad  for  a 
penny  was  the  ignoble  price  in  1733,  and  it  was 
never  much  higher  until  after  the  Revolution.  After 
shad  and  salmon  acquired  a  better  reputation  as 
food,  the  falls  of  various  rivers  became  great  resorts 
for  American  fishermen  as  they  had  been  for  the 
Indians.  Both  kinds  of  fish  were  caught  in  scoop- 
nets  and  seines  below  the  falls.  Men  came  from  a 
distance  and  loaded  horses  and  carts  with  the  fish  to 
carry  home.  Every  farmhouse  near  was  filled  with 
visitors.  It  was  estimated  that  at  the  falls  at  South 
Hadley  there  were  fifteen  hundred  horses  in  one  day. 

Salted  fish  was  as  carefully  prepared  and  amiably 
regarded  for  home  use  in  New  England  and  New 
York  as  in  England  and  Holland  at  the  same  date. 
The  ling  and  herring  of  the  old  countries  of  Europe 
gave  place  in  America  to  cod,  shad,  and  mackerel. 
The  greatest  pains  was  taken  in  preparing,  drying, 
and  salting  the  plentiful  fish.  It  is  said  that  in 
New  York  towns,  such  as  New  York  and  Brooklyn, 
after  shad  became  a  popular  fish,  great  heaps  were 
left  when  purchased  at  each  door,  and  that  the 
necessary  cleaning  and  preparation  of  the  shad  was 
done  on  the  street.  As  all  housewives  purchased 
shad  and  salted  and  packed  at  about  the  same  time, 


Food  from  Forest  and  Sea  125 


those  public  scavengers,  the  domestic  hogs  who 
roamed  the  town  streets  unchecked  (and  ever  wel- 
comed), must  have  been  specially  useful  at  shad-time. 

Not  in  the  waters,  but  of  it,  were  the  magnificent 
tribes  of  marine  fowl  that,  undiminished  by  the 
feeble  weapons  and  few  numbers  of  the  Indians, 
had  peopled  for  centuries  the  waters  of  the  New 
World.  The  Chesapeake  and  its  tributaries  furnished 
each  autumn  vast  feeding-grounds  of  wild  celery 
and  other  aquatic  plants  to  millions  of  those  creat- 
ures. The  firearms  of  Captain  John  Smith  and 
his  two  companions  were  poor  things  compared 
with  the  fowling-pieces  of  to-day,  but  with  their 
three  shots  they  killed  a  hundred  and  forty-eight 
ducks  at  one  firing.  The  splendid  wild  swan 
wheeled  and  trumpeted  in  the  clear  autumn  air ; 
the  wild  geese  flew  there  in  their  beautiful  V-shaped 
flight ;  duck  in  all  the  varieties  known  to  modern 
sportsmen  —  canvas-back,  mallard,  widgeon,  red- 
head, oxeye,  dottrel  —  rested  on  the  Chesapeake 
waters  in  vast  flocks  a  mile  wide  and  seven  miles 
long.  Governor  Berkeley  named  also  brant,  shell 
drake,  teal,  and  blewings.  The  sound  of  their 
wings  was  said  to  be  "  like  a  great  storm  coming 
over  the  water."  For  centuries  these  ducks  have 
been  killed  by  the  white  man,  and  still  they  return 
each  autumn  to  their  old  feeding-places. 


CHAPTER  VI 


INDIAN  CORN 

A GREAT  field  of  tall  Indian  corn  waving  its 
stately  and  luxuriant  green  blades,  its  grace- 
ful spindles,  and  glossy  silk  under  the  hot 
August  sun,  should  be  not  only  a  beautiful  sight  to 
every  American,  but  a  suggestive  one ;  one  to  set 
us  thinking  of  all  that  Indian  corn  means  to  us 
in  our  history.  It  was  a  native  of  American  soil  at 
the  settlement  of  this  country,  and  under  full  and 
thoroughly  intelligent  cultivation  by  the  Indians, 
who  were  also  native  sons  of  the  New  World.  Its 
abundance,  adaptability,  and  nourishing  qualities 
not  only  saved  the  colonists'  lives,  but  altered 
many  of  their  methods  of  living,  especially  their 
manner  of  cooking  and  their  tastes  in  food. 

One  of  the  first  things  that  every  settler  in  a  new 
land  has  to  learn  is  that  he  must  find  food  in  that 
land ;  that  he  cannot  trust  long  to  any  supplies  of 
food  which  he  has  brought  with  him,  or  to  any 
fresh  supplies  which  he  has  ordered  to  be  sent  after 
him.    He  must  turn  at  once  to  hunting,  fishing, 

r 

126 


Indian  Corn 


127 


planting,  to  furnish  him  with  food  grown  and  found 
in  the  very  place  where  he  is. 

This  was  quickly  learned  by  the  colonists  in 
America,  except  in  Virginia,  where  they  had  sad 
starving-times  before  all  were  convinced  that  corn 
was  a  better  crop  for  settlers  than  silk  or  any  of  the 
many  hoped-for  productions  which  might  be  valua- 
ble in  one  sense  but  which  could  not  be  eaten. 
Powhatan,  the  father  of  the  Indian  princess  Poca- 
hontas, was  one  of  the  first  to  "send  some  of  his 
People  that  they  may  teach  the  English  how  to  sow 
the  Grain  of  his  Country/'  Captain  John  Smith, 
ever  quick  to  learn  of  every  one  and  ever  practical, 
got  two  Indians,  in  the  year  1608,  to  show  him  how 
to  break  up  and  plant  forty  acres  of  corn,  which 
yielded  him  a  good  crop.  A  succeeding  governor 
of  Virginia,  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  equally  practical, 
intelligent,  and  determined,  assigned  small  farms  to 
each  colonist,  and  encouraged  and  enforced  the 
growing  of  corn.  Soon  many  '  thousand  bushels 
were  raised.  There  was  a  terrible  Indian  massacre 
in  1622,  for  the  careless  colonists,  in  order  to  be 
free  to  give  their  time  to  the  raising  of  that  new  and 
exceedingly  alluring  and  high-priced  crop,  tobacco, 
had  given  the  Indians  firearms  to  go  hunting  game 
for  them;  and  the  lesson  of  easy  killing  with  powder 
and  shot,  when  once  learned,  was  turned  with  havoc 


128  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


upon  the  white  men.  The  following  year  compara- 
tively little  corn  was  planted,  as  the  luxuriant  foli- 
age made  a  perfect  ambush  for  the  close  approach 
of  the  savages  to  the  settlements.  There  was,  of 
course,  scarcity  and  famine  as  the  result ;  and  a 
bushel  of  corn-meal  became  worth  twenty  to  thirty 
shillings,  which  sum  had  a  value  equal  to  twenty  to 
thirty  dollars  to-day.  The  planters  were  each  com- 
pelled by  the  magistrates  the  following  year  to  raise 
an  ample  amount  of  corn  to  supply  all  the  families  ; 
and  to  save  a  certain  amount  for  seed  as  well.  There 
has  been  no  lack  of  corn  since  that  time  in  Vir- 
ginia. 

The  French  colonists  in  Louisiana,  perhaps  be- 
cause they  were  accustomed  to  more  dainty  food 
than  the  English,  fiercely  hated  corn,  as  have  the 
Irish  in  our  own  day.  A  band  of  French  women 
settlers  fairly  raised  a  "petticoat  rebellion  "  in  revolt 
against  its  daily  use.  A  despatch  of  the  governor 
of  Louisiana  says  of  these  rebels  :  — 

"  The  men  in  the  colony  begin  through  habit  to  use 
corn  as  an  article  of  food  ;  but  the  women,  who  are  mostly 
Parisians,  have  for  this  food  a  dogged  aversion,  which  has 
not  been  subdued.  They  inveigh  bitterly  against  His 
Grace,  the  Bishop  of  Quebec,  who,  they  say,  has  enticed 
them  away  from  home  under  pretext  of  sending  them  to 
enjoy  the  milk  and  honey  of  the  land  of  promise." 


Indian  Corn  129 

This  hatred  of  corn  was  shared  by  other  races. 
An  old  writer  says  :  — 

"  Peter  Martyr  could  magnifie  the  Spaniards,  of  whom 
he  reports  they  led  a  miserable  life  for  three  days  together, 
with  parched  grain  of  maize  onlie  "  — 

which,  when  compared  with  the  diet  of  New  Eng- 
land settlers  for  weeks  at  a  time,  seems  such  a 
bagatelle  as  to  be  scarce  worth  the  mention  of  Peter 
Martyr.  By  tradition,  still  commemorated  at  Fore- 
fathers' Dinners,  the  ration  of  Indian  corn  supplied 
to  each  person  in  the  colony  in  time  of  famine  was 
but  five  kernels. 

The  stores  brought  over  by  the  Pilgrims  were 
poor  and  inadequate  enough  ;  the  beef  and  pork 
were  tainted,  the  fish  rotten,  the  butter  and  cheese 
corrupted.  European  wheat  and  seeds  did  not 
mature  well.  Soon,  as  Bradford  says  in  his  now 
famous  Log-Book^  in  his  picturesque  and  forcible 
English,  "  the  grim  and  grizzled  face  of  starvation 
stared"  at  them.  The  readiest  supply  to  replenish 
the  scanty  larder  was  fish,  but  the  English  made 
surprisingly  bungling  work  over  fishing,  and  soon 
the  most  unfailing  and  valuable  supply  was  the 
native  Indian  corn,  or  "  Guinny  wheat,"  or  "  Turkie 
wheat,"  as  it  was  called  by  the  colonists. 

Famine  and  pestilence  had  left  eastern  Massachu- 

K 


130  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

setts  comparatively  bare  of  inhabitants  at  the  time 
of  the  settlement  of  Plymouth  ;  and  the  vacant  corn- 
fields of  the  dead  Indian  cultivators  were  taken  and 
planted  by  the  weak  and  emaciated  Plymouth  men, 
who  never  could  have  cleared  new  fields.  From  the 
teeming  sea,  in  the  April  run  of  fish,  was  found  the 
needed  fertilizer.    Says  Governor  Bradford  :  — 

"  In  April  of  the  first  year  they  began  to  plant  their 
come,  in  which  service  Squanto  stood  them  in  great  stead, 
showing  them  both  ye  manner  how  to  set  it,  and  after,  how 
to  dress  and  tend  it." 

From  this  planting  sprang  not  only  the  most  useful 
food,  but  the  first  and  most  pregnant  industry  of  the 
colonists. 

The  first  fields  and  crops  were  communal,  and 
the  result  was  disastrous.  The  third  year,  at  the 
sight  of  the  paralyzed  settlement,  Governor  Brad- 
ford wisely  decided,  as  did  Governor  Dale  of  Vir- 
ginia, that  "  they  should  set  corne  every  man  for  his 
owne  particuler,  furnishing  a  portion  for  public  offi- 
cers, fishermen,  etc.,  who  could  not  work,  and  in  that 
regard  trust  to  themselves/'  Thus  personal  energy 
succeeded  to  communal  inertia ;  Bradford  wrote 
that  women  and  children  cheerfully  worked  in  the 
fields  to  raise  corn  which  should  be  their  very  own. 

A  field  of  corn  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts  or 


Indian  Corn 


Narragansett  or  by  the  rivers  of  Virginia,  growing 
long  before  any  white  man  had  ever  been  seen  on 
these  shores,  was  precisely  like  the  same  field 
planted  three  hundred  years  later  by  our  American 
farmers.  There  was  the  same  planting  in  hills,  the 
same  number  of  stalks  in  the  hill,  with  pumpkin- 
vines  running  among  the  hills,  and  beans  climbing 
the  stalks.  The  hills  of  the  Indians  were  a  trifle 
nearer  together  than  those  of  our  own  day  are 
usually  set,  for  the  native  soil  was  more  fertile. 

The  Indians  taught  the  colonists  much  more 
than  the  planting  and  raising  of  corn ;  they  showed 
also  how  to  grind  the  corn  and  cook  it  in  many 
palatable  ways.  The  various  foods  which  we  use 
to-day  made  from  Indian  corn  are  all  cooked  just 
as  the  Indians  cooked  them  at  the  time  of  the 
settlement  of  the  country ;  and  they  are  still  called 
with  Indian  names,  such  as  hominy,  pone,  suppawn, 
samp,  succotash. 

The  Indian  method  of  preparing  maize  or  corn 
was  to  steep  or  parboil  it  in  hot  water  for  twelve 
hours,  then  to  pound  the  grain  in  a  mortar  or  a 
hollowed  stone  in  the  field,  till  it  was  a  coarse  meal. 
It  was  then  sifted  in  a  rather  closely  woven  basket, 
and  the  large  grains  which  did  not  pass  through  the 
sieve  were  again  pounded  and  sifted. 

Samp  was  often  pounded  in  olden  times  in  a 


132  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


primitive  and  picturesque  Indian  mortar  made  of  a 
hollowed  block  of  wood  or  a  stump  of  a  tree,  which 
had  been  cut  off  about  three  feet  from  the  ground) 
The  pestle  was  a  heavy  block  of  wood  shaped  like 
the  inside  of  the  mortar,  and  fitted  with  a  handle 
attached  to  one  side.  This  block  was  fastened  to 
the  top  of  a  young  and  slender  tree,  a  growing  sap- 
ling, which  was  bent  over  and  thus  gave  a  sort  of 
spring  which  pulled  the  pestle  up  after  being 
pounded  down  on  the  corn.  This  was  called  a 
sweep  and  mortar  mill. 

They  could  be  heard  at  a  long  distance.  Two 
New  Hampshire  pioneers  made  clearings  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  apart  and  built  houses.  There 
was  an  impenetrable  gully  and  thick  woods  between 
the  cabins  ;  and  the  blazed  path  was  a  long  distance 
around,  so  the  wives  of  the  settlers  seldom  saw 
each  other  or  any  other  woman.  It  was  a  source 
of  great  comfort  and  companionship  to  them  both 
that  they  could  signal  to  each  other  every  day  by 
pounding  on  their  mortars.  And  they  had  an  in- 
genious system  of  communication  which  one  spring 
morning  summoned  one  to  the  home  of  the  other, 
where  she  arrived  in  time  to  be  the  first  to  welcome 
fine  twin  babies. 

After  these  simple  stump  and  sapling  mortars 
were  abandoned  elsewhere  they  were  used  on  Long 


Indian  Corn 


l33 


Island,  and  it  was  jestingly  told  that  sailors  in  a  fog 
could  always  know  on  what  shore  they  were,  when 
they  could  hear  the  pounding  of  the  samp-mortars 
on  Long  Island. 

Rude  hand-mills  next  were  used,  which  were 
called  quernes,  or  quarnes.  Some  are  still  in  exist- 
ence and  known  as  samp-mills.  Windmills  fol- 
lowed, of  which  the  Indians  were  much  afraid, 
dreading  "  their  long  arms  and  great  teeth  biting 
the  corn  in  pieces  "  ;  and  thinking  some  evil  spirit 
turned  the  arms.  As  soon  as  maize  was  plentiful, 
English  mills  for  grinding  meal  were  started  in 
many  towns.  There  was  a  windmill  at  Watertown, 
Massachusetts,  in  163 1.  In  1633  the  first  water- 
mill,  at  Dorchester,  was  built,  and  in  Ipswich  a  grist- 
mill was  built  in  1635.  The  mill  built  by  Governor 
John  Winthrop  in  New  London  is  still  standing. 

The  first  windmill  erected  in  America  was  one 
built  and  set  up  by  Governor  Yeardley  in  Virginia 
in  1 62 1.  By  1649  there  were  five  water-mills,  four 
windmills,  and  a  great  number  of  horse  and  hand 
mills  in  Virginia.  Millers  had  one-sixth  of  the 
meal  they  ground  for  toll. 

Suppawn  was  another  favorite  of  the  settlers,  and 
was  an  Indian  dish  made  from  Indian  corn  ;  it  was 
a  thick  corn-meal  and  milk  porridge.  It  was  soon 
seen  on  every  Dutch  table,  for  the  Dutch  were  very 


134  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


fond  of  all  foods  made  from  all  kinds  of  grain  ;  and 
it  is  spoken  of  by  all  travellers  in  early  New  York, 
and  in  the  Southern  colonies. 

Samp  and  samp  porridge  were  soon  abundant 
dishes.  Samp  is  Indian  corn  pounded  to  a  coarsely 
ground  powder.    Roger  Williams  wrote  of  it :  — 

w  Nawsamp  is  a  kind  of  meal  pottage  unparched.  From 
this  the  English  call  their  samp,  which  is  the  Indian  corn 
beaten  and  boiled  and  eaten  hot  or  cold  with  milk  and 
butter,  and  is  a  diet  exceedingly  wholesome  for  English 
bodies." 

The  Swedish  scientist,  Professor  Kalm,  told  that 
the  Indians  gave  him  "  fresh  maize-bread,  baked  in 
an  oblong  shape,  mixed  with  dried  huckleberries, 
which  lay  as  close  in  it  as  raisins  in  a  plum 
pudding." 

Roger  Williams  said  that  sukquttahhash  was 
"corn  seethed  like  beans."  Our  word  "succotash" 
we  now  apply  to  corn  cooked  with  beans.  Pones 
were  the  red  men's  appones. 

The  love  of  the  Indians  for  "roasting  ears  "  was 
quickly  shared  by  the  white  man.  In  Virginia  a 
series  of  plantings  of  corn  were  made  from  the  first 
of  April  to  the  last  of  June,  to  afford  a  three 
months'  succession  of  roasting  ears. 

The  traveller,  Strachey,  writing  of  the  Indians  in 


Indian  Corn 


l3S 


1618,  said:  "They  lap  their  corn  in  rowles  within 
the  leaves  of  the  corne  and  so  boyle  yt  for  a 
dayntie."  This  method  of  cooking  we  have  also 
retained  to  the  present  day. 

It  seemed  to  me  very  curious  to  read  in  Governor 
Winthrop's  journal,  written  in  Boston  about  1630, 
that  when  corn  was  "parched,"  as  he  called  it,  it 
turned  inside  out  and  was  "white  and  floury  within"  ; 
and  to  think  that  then  little  English  children  were 
at  that  time  learning  what  pop-corn  was,  and  how 
it  looked  when  it  was  parched,  or  popped. 

Hasty  pudding  had  been  made  in  England  of 
wheat-flour  or  oatmeal  and  milk,  and  the  name  was 
given  to  boiled  puddings  of  corn-meal  and  water. 
It  was  not  a  very  suitable  name,  for  corn-meal 
should  never  be  cooked  hastily,  but  requires  long 
boiling  or  baking.  The  hard  Indian  pudding 
slightly  sweetened  and  boiled  in  a  bag  was  every- 
where made.  It  was  told  that  many  New  England 
families  had  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  such  pud- 
dings in  a  year. 

The  virtues  of  "  jonny-cake "  have  been  loudly 
sung  in  the  interesting  pages  of  Shepherd  Tom.  The 
way  the  corn  should  be  carried  to  the  mill,  the 
manner  in  which  it  should  be  ground,  the  way  in 
which  the  stones  should  revolve,  and  the  kind  of 
stones,  receive  minute  description,  as  does  the  mix- 


136  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


ing  and  the  baking,  to  the  latter  of  which  the  mid- 
dle board  of  red  oak  from  the  head  of  a  flour-barrel 
is  indispensable  as  a  bakeboard,  while  the  fire  to 
bake  with  must  be  of  walnut  logs.  Hasty  pud- 
ding, corn  dumplings,  and  corn-meal  porridge,  so 
eminently  good  that  it  was  ever  mentioned  with 
respect  in  the  plural,  as  "  them  porridge,"  all  are 
described  with  the  exuberant  joyousness  of  a  happy, 
healthful  old  age  in  remembrance  of  a  happy,  high- 
spirited,  and  healthful  youth. 

The  harvesting  of  the  corn  afforded  one  of  the 
few  scenes  of  gayety  in  the  lives  of  the  colonists.  A 
diary  of  one  Ames,  of  Dedham,  Massachusetts,  in 
the  year  1767,  thus  describes  a  corn-husking,  and 
most  ungallantly  says  naught  of  the  red  ear  and 
attendant  osculation:  — 

"  Made  a  husking  Entertainm't.  Possibly  this  leafe 
may  last  a  Century  and  fall  into  the  hands  of  some  in- 
quisitive Person  for  whose  Entertainm't  I  will  inform  him 
that  now  there  is  a  Custom  amongst  us  of  making  an 
Entertainm't  at  husking  of  Indian  Corn  whereto  all  the 
neighboring  Swains  are  invited  and  after  the  Corn  is 
finished  they  like  the  Hottentots  give  three  Cheers  or 
huzza's  but  cannot  carry  in  the  husks  without  a  Rhum 
bottle ;  they  feign  great  Exertion  but  do  nothing  till  Rhum 
enlivens  them,  when  all  is  done  in  a  trice,  then  after  a 
hearty  Meal  about  10  at  Night  they  go  to  their  pastimes." 


Indian  Corn 


137 


There  was  one  way  of  eating  corn  which  was 
spoken  of  by  all  the  early  writers  and  travellers 
which  we  should  not  be  very  well  satisfied  with 
now,  but  it  shows  us  how  useful  and  necessary  corn 
was  at  that  time,  and  how  much  all  depended  on 
it.  This  preparation  of  corn  was  called  nocake  or 
nookick.  An  old  writer  named  Wood  thus  de- 
fined it :  — 

"  It  is  Indian  corn  parched  in  the  hot  ashes,  the  ashes 
being  sifted  from  it ;  it  is  afterwards  beaten  to  powder 
and  put  into  a  long  leatherne  bag  trussed  at  the  Indian's 
backe  like  a  knapsacke,  out  of  which  they  take  three 
spoonsful  a  day." 

It  was  held  to  be  the  most  nourishing  food  known, 
and  in  the  smallest  and  most  condensed  form.  Both 
Indians  and  white  men  usually  carried  it  in  a  pouch 
when  they  went  on  long  journeys,  and  mixed  it  with 
snow  in  the  winter  and  water  in  summer.  Gookin 
says  it  was  sweet,  toothsome,  and  hearty.  With 
only  this  nourishment  the  Indians  could  carry  loads 
"  fitter  for  elephants  than  men."  Roger  Williams 
says  a  spoonful  of  this  meal  and  water  made  him 
many  a  good  meal.  When  we  read  this  we  are  not 
surprised  that  the  Pilgrims  could  keep  alive  on  what 
is  said  was  at  one  time  of  famine  their  food  for  a 
day, — five  kernels  of  corn  apiece.    The  apostle 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Eliot,  in  his  Indian  Bible,  always  used  the  word 
nookick  for  the  English  words  flour  or  meal. 

We  ought  to  think  of  the  value  of  food  in  those 
days ;  and  we  may  be  sure  the  governor  and  his 
council  thought  corn  of  value  when  they  took  it 
for  taxes  and  made  it  a  legal  currency  just  like 
gold  and  silver,  and  forbade  any  one  to  feed  it  to 
pigs.  If  you  happen  to  see  the  price  of  corn 
during  those  years  down  to  Revolutionary  times, 
you  will,  perhaps,  be  surprised  to  see  how  much  the 
price  varied.  From  ten  shillings  a  bushel  in  1631, 
to  two  shillings  in  1672,  to  twenty  in  1747,  to  two 
in  175 1,  and  one  hundred  shillings  at  the  opening 
of  the  Revolution.  In  these  prices  of  corn,  as  in 
the  price  of  all  other  articles  at  this  time,  the  differ- 
ence was  in  the  money,  which  had  a  constantly 
changing  value,  not  in  the  article  itself  or  its  use- 
fulness. The  corn  had  a  steady  value,  it  always 
furnished  just  so  much  food;  and  really  was  a 
standard  itself  rather  than  measured  and  valued 
by  the  poor  and  shifting  money. 

There  are  many  other  interesting  facts  connected 
with  the  early  culture  of  corn :  of  the  finding  hidden 
in  caves  or  "  caches  "  in  the  ground  the  Indian's 
corn  which  he  had  stored  for  seed  ;  of  the  sacred 
"  corn-dances  "  of  the  Indians;  that  the  first  patent 
granted  in  England  to  an  American  was  to  a  Phila- 


Indian  Corn 


!39 


delphia  woman  for  a  mill  to  grind  a  kind  of  hominy; 
of  the  great  profit  to  the  colonists  in  corn-raising, 
for  the  careless  and  greedy  Indians  always  ate  up 
all  their  corn  as  soon  as  possible,  then  had  to  go  out 
and  trap  beavers  in  the  woods  to  sell  the  skins  to 
the  colonists  for  corn  to  keep  them  from  starving. 
One  colonist  planted  about  eight  bushels  of  seed- 
corn.  He  raised  from  this  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  bushels  of  corn,  which  he  sold  to  the  Indians 
for  beaver  skins  which  gave  him  a  profit  of  X327- 

Many  games  were  played  with  the  aid  of  kernels 
of  corn  :  fox  and  geese,  checkers,  "  hull  gull,  how 
many,"  and  games  in  which  the  corn  served  as 
counters. 

The  ears  of  corn  were  often  piled  into  the  attic 
until  the  floor  was  a  foot  deep  with  them.  I  once 
entered  an  ell  bedroom  in  a  Massachusetts  farm- 
house where  the  walls,  rafters,  and  four-post  bed- 
stead were  hung  solid  with  ears  of  yellow  corn, 
which  truly  cc  made  a  sunshine  in  a  shady  place." 

Some  of  the  preparation  of  corn  fell  upon  the 
boys  ;  it  was  their  regular  work  all  winter  in  the 
evening  firelight  to  shell  corn  from  the  ears  by 
scraping  them  on  the  iron  edge  of  the  wooden  shovel 
or  on  the  fire-peel.  My  father  told  me  that  even 
in  his  childhood  in  the  first  quarter  of  this  century 
many  families  of  moderate  means  fastened  the  long- 


140  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

handled  frying-pan  across  a  tub  and  drew  the  corn 
ears  across  the  sharp  edge  of  the  handle  of  the  pan. 
I  note  in  Peter  Parley's  reminiscences  of  his  child- 


hood a  similar  use  of  a  frying-pan  handle  in  his 
home.  Other  farmers  set  the  edge  of  a  knife  blade 
in  a  piece  of  woodr  and  scraped  on  the  back  of  the 
blade.    In  some  households  the  corn  was  pounded 


Indian  Corn 


141 


into  hominy  in  wooden  mortars.  An  old  corn- 
sheller  used  in  western  Massachusetts  is  here  shown. 

When  the  corn  was  shelled,  the  cobs  were  not 
carelessly  discarded  or  disregarded.  They  were 
stored  often  in  a  lean-to  or  loft  in  the  kitchen  ell ; 
from  thence  they  were  brought  down  in  skepes  or 
boxes  about  a  bushel  at  a  time;  and  after  being  used 
by  the  children  as  playthings  to  build  "  cob-houses," 
were  employed  as  light  wood  for  the  fire.  They 
had  a  special  use  in  many  households  for  smoking 
hams  ;  and  their  smoke  was  deemed  to  impart  a 
specially  delightful  flavor  to  hams  and  bacon. 

One  special  use  of  corn  should  be  noted.  By 
order  of  the  government  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
1623,  it  was  used  as  ballots  in  public  voting.  At 
annual  elections  of  the  governors'  assistants  in  each 
town,  a  kernel  of  corn  was  deposited  to  signify  a 
favorable  vote  upon  the  nominee,  while  a  bean  signi- 
fied a  negative  vote  ;  "  and  if  any  free-man  shall 
put  in  more  than  one  Indian  corn  or  bean  he  shall 
forfeit  for  every  such  offence  Ten  Pounds." 

The  choice  of  a  national  flower  or  plant  is  much 
talked  about  to-day.  Aside  from  the  beauty  of 
maize  when  growing  and  its  wonderful  adaptability 
in  every  part  for  decoration,  would  not  the  noble  and 
useful  part  played  by  Indian  corn  in  our  early  his- 
tory entitle  it  to  be  our  first  choice  ? 


CHAPTER  VII 


MEAT   AND  DRINK 

THE  food  brought  in  ships  from  Europe  to 
the  colonists  was  naturally  limited  by  the 
imperfect  methods  of  transportation  which 
then  existed.  Nothing  like  refrigerators  were 
known;  no  tinned  foods  were  even  thought  of; 
ways  of  packing  were  very  crude  and  careless ;  so 
the  kinds  of  provisions  which  would  stand  the  long 
voyage  on  a  slow  sailing-vessel  were  very  few. 
The  settlers  turned  at  once,  as  all  settlers  in  a  new 
land  should,  to  the  food-supplies  found  in  the  new 
home ;  of  these  the  three  most  important  ones  were 
corn,  fish,  and  game.  I  have  told  of  their  plenty, 
their  value,  and  their  use.  There  were  many  other 
bountiful  and  good  foods,  among  them  pumpkins 
or  pompions,  as  they  were  at  first  called. 

The  pumpkin  has  sturdily  kept  its  own  place  on 
the  New  England  farm,  varying  in  popularity  and 
use,  but  always  of  value  as  easy  of  growth,  easy  of 
cooking,  and  easy  to  keep  in  a  dried  form.  Yet 
the  colonists  did  not  welcome  the  pumpkin  with 

142 


Meat  and  Drink 


eagerness,  even  in  times  of  great  want.  They 
were  justly  rebuked  for  their  indifference  and  dis- 
like by  Johnson  in  his  Wonder-working  Providence^ 
who  called  the  pumpkin  "  a  fruit  which  the  Lord 
fed  his  people  with  till  corn  and  cattle  increased  "  ; 
and  another  pumpkin-lover  referred  to  "the  times 
wherein  old  Pompion  was  a  saint."  One  colonial 
poet  gives  the  golden  vegetable  this  tribute:  — 

u  We  have  pumpkins  at  morning  and  pumpkins  at  noon, 
If  it  were  not  for  pumpkins  we  should  be  undone." 

I  am  very  sure  were  I  living  on  dried  corn  and 
scant  shell-fish,  as  the  Pilgrims  were  forced  to  do,  I 
should  have  turned  with  delight  to  "  pompion- 
sause  "  as  a  change  of  diet.  Stewed  pumpkins  and 
pumpkin  bread  were  coarse  ways  of  using  the  fruit 
for  food.  Pumpkin  bread  —  made  of  half  Indian 
meal  —  was  not  very  pleasing  in  appearance.  A 
traveller  in  1704  called  it  an  "awkward  food."  It 
is  eaten  in  Connecticut  to  this  day.  The  Indians 
dried  pumpkins  and  strung  them  for  winter  use, 
and  the  colonists  followed  the  Indian  custom. 

In  Virginia  pumpkins  were  equally  plentiful  and 
useful.  Ralph  Hamor,  in  his  True  Discourse^  says 
they  grew  in  such  abundance  that  a  hundred  were 
often  observed  to  spring  from  one  seed.  The  Vir- 
ginia Indians  boiled  beans,  peas,  corn,  and  pumpkins 


144  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


together,  and  the  colonists  liked  the  dish.  In  the 
trying  times  at  "  James-Citty,"  the  plentiful  pump- 
kins played  a  great  part  in  providing  food-supplies 
for  the  starving  Virginians. 

Squashes  were  also  native  vegetables.  The  name 
is  Indian.  To  show  the  wonderful  and  varied  way 
in  which  the  English  spelt  Indian  names  let  me 
tell  you  that  Roger  Williams  called  them  askuta- 
squashes;  the  Puritan  minister  Higginson,  squanter- 
squashes;  the  traveller  Josselyn,  squontorsquashes, 
and  the  historian  Wood,  isquoukersquashes. 

Potatoes  were  known  to  New  Englanders,  but  were 
rare  and  when  referred  to  were  probably  sweet  pota- 
toes. It  was  a  long  time  before  they  were  much 
liked.  A  farmer  at  Hadley,  Massachusetts,  had 
what  he  thought  a  very  large  crop  in  1763  — it  was 
eight  bushels.  It  was  believed  by  many  persons 
that  if  a  man  ate  them  every  day,  he  could  not  live 
seven  years.  In  the  spring  all  that  were  left  on  hand 
were  carefully  burned,  for  many  believed  that  if 
cattle  or  horses  ate  these  potatoes  they  would  die. 
They  were  first  called,  when  carried  to  England, 
Virginia  potatoes;  then  they  became  much  liked 
and  grown  in  Ireland;  then  the  Irish  settlers  in 
New  Hampshire  brought  them  back  to  this  conti- 
nent, and  now  they  are  called,  very  senselessly,  Irish 
potatoes.      Many  persons  fancied  the  balls  were 


Meat  and  Drink  145 

what  should  be  eaten,  and  said  they  "  did  not  much 
desire  them."  A  fashionable  way  of  cooking  them 
was  with  butter,  sugar,  and  grape-juice;  this  was 
mixed  with  dates,  lemons,  and  mace;  seasoned  with 
cinnamon,  nutmeg,  and  pepper;  then  covered  with 
a  frosting  of  sugar  —  and  you  had  to  hunt  well  to 
find  the  potato  among  all  these  other  things. 

In  the  Carolinas  the  change  in  English  diet  was 
effected  by  the  sweet  potato.  This  root  was  cooked 
in  various  ways  :  it  was  roasted  in  the  ashes,  boiled, 
made  into  puddings,  used  as  a  substitute  for  bread, 
made  into  pancakes  which  a  foreigner  said  tasted  as 
though  composed  of  sweet  almonds;  and  in  every 
way  it  was  liked  and  was  so  plentiful  that  even  the 
slaves  fed  upon  it. 

Beans  were  abundant,  and  were  baked  by  the 
Indians  in  earthen  pots  just  as  we  bake  them 
to-day.  The  settlers  planted  peas,  parsnips,  tur- 
nips, and  carrots,  which  grew  and  thrived.  Huckle- 
berries, blackberries,  strawberries,  and  grapes  grew 
wild.  Apple-trees  were  planted  at  once,  and  grew 
well  in  New  England  and  the  Middle  states. 
Twenty  years  after  the  Roman  Catholic  settlement 
of  Maryland  the  fruitful  orchards  were  conspicu- 
ously flourishing. 

Johnson,  writing  in  1634,  said  that  all  then  in 
New  England  could  have  apple,  pear,  and  quince 


146  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


tarts  instead  of  pumpkin-pies.  They  made  apple- 
slump,  apple-mose,  apple-crowdy,  apple-tarts,  mess 
apple-pies,  and  puff  apple-pies.  The  Swedish  par- 
son, Dr.  Acrelius,  writing  home  in  1758  an  account 
of  the  settlement  of  Delaware,  said  :  — 

"  Apple-pie  is  used  through  the  whole  year,  and  when 
fresh  apples  are  no  longer  to  be  had,  dried  ones  are  used. 
It  is  the  evening  meal  of  children.  House-pie,  in  country 
places,  is  made  of  apples  neither  peeled  nor  freed  from  their 
cores,  and  its  crust  is  not  broken  if  a  wagon  wheel  goes 
over  it." 

The  making  of  a  portion  of  the  autumn's  crop 
of  apples  into  dried  apples,  apple-sauce,  and  apple- 
butter  for  winter  was  preceded  in  many  country 
homes  by  an  apple-paring.  The  cheerful  kitchen 
of  a  farmhouse  was  set  with  an  array  of  empty  pans, 
tubs,  and  baskets;  of  sharp  knives  and  heaped-up 
barrels  of  apples.  A  circle  of  laughing  faces  com- 
pleted the  scene,  and  the  barrels  of  apples  were 
quickly  emptied  by  the  many  skilful  hands.  The 
apples  intended  for  drying  were  strung  on  linen 
thread  and  hung  on  the  kitchen  and  attic  rafters. 
The  following  day  the  stout  crane  in  the  open  fire- 
place was  hung  with  brass  kettles  which  were  filled 
with  the  pared  apples,  sweet  and  sour  in  proper 
proportions,  the  sour  at  the  bottom  since  they  re- 


Meat  and  Drink 


H7 


quired  more  rime  to  cook.  If  quinces  could  be  had, 
they  were  added  to  give  flavor,  and  molasses,  or 
boiled-down  pungent  "  apple-molasses,"  was  added 
for  sweetening.  As  there  was  danger  that  the  sauce 
would  burn  over  the  roaring  logs,  many  housewives 
placed  clean  straw  at  the  bottom  of  the  kettle  to 
keep  the  apples  from  the  fiercest  heat.  Days  were 
spent  in  preparing  the  winter's  stock  of  apple-sauce, 
but  when  done  and  placed  in  barrels  in  the  cellar,  it 
was  always  ready  for  use,  and  when  slightly  frozen 
was  a  keen  relish.  Apple-butter  was  made  of  the 
pared  apples  boiled  down  with  cider. 

Wheat  did  not  at  first  ripen  well,  so  white  bread 
was  for  a  time  rarely  eaten.  Rye  grew  better,  so 
bread  made  of  "  rye-an'-injun,"  which  was  half  rye- 
meal,  half  corn-meal,  was  used  instead.  Bake-shops 
were  so  many  in  number  in  all  the  towns  that  it  is 
evident  that  housewives  in  towns  and  villages  did 
not  make  bread  in  every  home  as  to-day,  but  bought 
it  at  the  baker's. 

At  the  time  when  America  was  settled,  no  Euro- 
pean peoples  drank  water  as  we  do  to-day,  for  a 
constant  beverage.  The  English  drank  ale,  the 
Dutch  beer,  the  French  and  Spanish  light  wines,  for 
every-day  use.  Hence  it  seemed  to  the  colonists  a 
great  trial  and  even  a  very  dangerous  experiment  to 
drink  water  in  the  New  World.    They  were  forced 


148  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

to  do  it,  however,  in  many  cases  ;  and  to  their  sur- 
prise found  that  it  agreed  with  them  very  well,  and 
that  their  health  improved.  Governor  Winthrop 
of  Massachusetts,  who  was  a  most  sensible  and 
thoughtful  man,  soon  had  water  used  as  a  constant 
drink  by  all  in  his  household. 

As  cows  increased  in  number  and  were  cared  for, 
milk  of  course  was  added  to  the  every-day  fare. 
Rev.  Mr.  Higginson  wrote  in  1630  that  milk  cost  in 
Salem  but  a  penny  a  quart ;  while  another  minister, 
John  Cotton,  said  that  milk  and  ministers  were  the 
only  things  cheap  in  New  England.  At  that  time 
milk  cost  but  a  penny  and  a  quarter  a  quart  in  old 
England. 

Milk  became  a  very  important  part  of  the  food 
of  families  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1728  a 
discussion  took  place  in  the  Boston  newspapers  as 
to  the  expense  of  keeping  a  family  "  of  middling 
figure."  These  writers  all  named  only  bread  and 
milk  for  breakfast  and  supper.  Ten  years  later 
a  minister,  calculating  the  expenses  of  his  family, 
set  down  bread  and  milk  for  both  breakfast  and 
supper.  Milk  and  hasty  pudding,  milk  and  stewed 
pumpkin,  milk  and  baked  apples,  milk  and  ber- 
ries, were  variations.  In  winter,  when  milk  was 
scarce,  sweetened  cider  diluted  with  water  was  used 
instead.      Sometimes  bread  was  soaked  with  this 


Meat  and  Drink  149 


mixture.  It  is  said  that  children  were  usually  very 
fond  of  it. 

As  comparatively  few  New  England  families  in 
the  seventeenth  century  owned  churns,  I  cannot 
think  that  many  made 
butter;  of  course 
families  of  wealth  ate 
it,  but  it  was  not  com- 
mon as  to-day.  In 
the  inventories  of  the 
property  of  the  early 
settlers  of  Maine 
there  is  but  one  churn 
named.  Butter  was 
worth  from  three- 
pence to  sixpence  a 
pound.  As  cattle  in- 
creased the  duties  of 
the  dairy  grew,  and 
soon  were  never-ceas- 
ing and  ever-tiring.  The  care  of  cream  and  making 
of  butter  was  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  duty  of 
every  good  wife  and  dame  in  the  country,  and  usu- 
ally in  the  town. 

Though  the  shape  and  ease  of  action  of  churns 
varied,  still  butter-making  itself  varied  little  from 
the  same  work  to-day.     Several  old-time  churns 


Upright  Churns 


150  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


are  shown,  the  revolving  one  being  the  most 
unusual. 

Cheese  was  plentiful  and  good  in  all  the  Northern 
colonies.  It  was  also  an  unending  care  from  the 
time  the  milk  was  set  over  the  fire  to  warm  and  then 
to  curdle  ;  through  the  breaking  of  the  curds  in  the 

cheese -basket ; 
through  shaping 
into  cheeses  and 
pressing  in  the 
cheese-press,  plac- 
ing them  on  the 
—  cheese-ladders, 

and  constantly 
turning  and  rub- 
bing them.  An 
old  cheese-press, 

Revolving  Churn  r  J 

cheese-ladder, 

and  cheese-basket  from  Deerfield  Memorial  Hall 
are  shown  in  the  illustration. 

In  all  households,  even  in  those  of  great  wealth 
and  many  servants,  assistance  was  given  in  all  house- 
wifery by  the  daughters  of  the  household.  In  the 
South  it  was  chiefly  by  superintendence  and  teach- 
ing through  actual  exposition  the  negro  slaves  ;  in 
the  North  it  was  by  the  careful  performance  of  the 
work. 


Meat  and  Drink  151 


Cheese-basket,  Cheese-ladder,  Cheese-press 


The  manuscript  cooking  receipt-book  of  many 
an  ancient  dame  shows  the  great  care  they  took  in 
family  cooking.  English  methods  of  cooking  at 
the  time  of  the  settlement  of  this  country  were  very 
complicated  and  very  laborious. 

It  was  a  day  of  hashes,  ragouts,  soups,  hotchpots, 
etc.  There  were  no  great  joints  served  until  the 
time  of  Charles  the  First.  In  almost  every  six- 
teenth-century receipt  for  cooking  meat,  appear  some 
such  directions  as  these:  "Y-mynce  it,  smyte  them 
on  gobbets,  hew  them  on  gobbets,  chop  on  gob- 
bets, hew  small,  dyce  them,  skern  them  to  dyce, 


152  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


kerf  it  to  dyce,  grind  all  to  dust,  smyte  on  peces, 
parcel-hem ;  hew  small  on  morselyen,  hack  them 
small,  cut  them  on  culpons."  Great  amounts  of 
spices  were  used,  even  perfumes ;  and  as  there  was 
no  preservation  of  meat  by  ice,  perhaps  the  spices 
and  perfumes  were  necessary. 

Of  course  the  colonists  were  forced  to  adopt 
simpler  ways  of  cooking,  but  as  towns  and  com- 
merce increased  there  were  many  kitchen  duties 
which  made  much  tedious  work.  Many  pickles, 
spiced  fruits,  preserves,  candied  fruits  and  flowers, 
and  marmalades  were  made. 

Preserving  was  a  very  different  art  from  canning 
fruit  to-day.  There  were  no  hermetically  sealed 
jars,  no  chemical  methods,  no  quick  work  about  it. 
Vast  jars  were  filled  with  preserves  so  rich  that 
there  was  no  need  of  keeping  the  air  from  them  ; 
they  could  be  opened,  that  is,  the  paper  cover  taken 
off,  and  used  as  desired ;  there  was  no  fear  of  fer- 
mentation, souring,  or  moulding. 

The  housewives  pickled  samphire,  fennel,  purple 
cabbage,  nasturtium-buds,  green  walnuts,  lemons, 
radish-pods,  barberries,  elder-buds,  parsley,  mush- 
rooms, asparagus,  and  many  kinds  of  fish  and  fruit. 
They  candied  fruits  and  nuts,  made  many  marmalades 
and  quiddonies,  and  a  vast  number  of  fruit  wines 
and  cordials.    Even  their  cakes,  pies,  and  puddings 


Meat  and  Drink 


IS3 


were  most  complicated,  and  humble  households 
were  lavish  in  the  various  kinds  they  manufactured 
and  ate. 

They  collared  and 
potted    many   kinds  of 
fish  and  game,  and  they 
salted  and  soused.  Salted 
meat  was  eaten,  and  very 
little    fresh    meat ;  for 
there  were  no  means  of 
keeping    meat    after   it  was 
killed.      Every  well-to-do 
family   had   a   "  powdering- 
tub,"    in    which    meat  was 
"  powdered/'  that  is,  salted 
and  pickled.    Many  families 
had  a  smoke-house,  in  which 
beef,  ham,  and   bacon  were 
smoked. 

Perhaps  the  busiest  month 
of  the  year  was  November, 
—  called    "killing  time." 
When  the  chosen  day  arrived, 
oxen,  cows,  and  swine  which 
had   been    fattened   for  the 
winter's  stock  were  slaughtered  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, that  the  meat  might  be  hard  and  cold  before 


Sausage-gun  (open) 


154  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


being  put  in  the  pickle.  Sausages,  rolliches,  and 
headcheese  were  made,  lard  tried  out,  and  tallow 
saved. 

A  curious  and  quaint  domestic  implement  or 
utensil  found  hanging  on  the  walls  of  some  kitch- 
ens was  what  was  known 
as  a  sausage-gun.  One 
here  is  shown  with  the 
piston  detached,  and  also 
ready  for  use.  The  sau- 
sage-meat was  forced  out 
through  the  nozzle  into 
the  sausage-cases.  A 
simpler  form  of  sausage- 
stufFer  has  also  been 
seen,  much  like  a  tube- 
and- piston  garden- 
syringe  ;  though  I  must 
add  a  suspicion  which  has 
always  lingered  in  my 
mind  that  the  latter  uten- 
sil was  really  a  syringe- 


Sausage-gun  (closed) 


SUCi 


as  once  was 


used  to  disable  humming-birds  by  squirting  water 
upon  them. 

Sausage-meat  was  thus  prepared  in  New  York 
farmhouses.    The  meat  was  cut  coarsely  into  half- 


Meat  and  Drink 


x55 


inch  pieces  and  thrown  into  wooden  boxes  about 
three  feet  long  and  ten  inches  deep.  Then  its  first 
chopping  was  by  men  using  spades  which  had  been 
ground  to  a  sharp  edge. 

There  were  many  families  that  found  all  their 
supply  of  sweetening  in  maple  sugar  and  honey  ; 
but  housewives  of  dignity  and  elegance  desired  to 
have  some  supply  of  sugar,  certainly  to  offer  visitors 
for  their  dish  of  tea.  This  sugar  was  always  loaf- 
sugar,  and  truly  loaf-sugar  ;  for  it  was  purchased 
ever  in  great  loaves  or  cones  which  averaged  in 
weight  about  nine  to  ten  pounds  apiece.  One  cone 
would  last  thrifty  folk  for  a  year.  This  pure  clear 
sugar-cone  always  came  wrapped  in  a  deep  blue-purple 
paper,  of  such  unusual  and  beautiful  tint  and  so 
color-laden  that  in  country  homes  it  was  carefully 
saved  and  soaked,  to  supply  a  dye  for  a  small  amount 
of  the  finest  wool,  which  was  used  when  spun  and 
dyed  for  some  specially  choice  purpose.  The  cut- 
ting of  this  cone  of  sugar  into  lumps  of  equal  size 
and  regular  shape  was  distinctly  the  work  of  the 
mistress  and  daughters  of  the  house.  It  was  too 
exact  and  too  dainty  a  piece  of  work  to  be  in- 
trusted to  clumsy  or  wasteful  servants.  Various 
simply  shaped  sugar-shears  or  sugar-cutters  were 
used.  An  ordinary  form  is  shown  in  the  illustra- 
tion.   I  well  recall  the  only  family  in  which  I  ever 


156  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


saw  this  solemn  function  of  sugar-cutting  take  place 
—  it  was  about  thirty  years  ago.  An  old  Boston 
East  India  merchant,  one  of  the  last  to  cling  to  a 
residence  in  what  is  known  now  as  the  "  Burnt  Dis- 
trict/' always  desired  (and  his  desire  was  law)  to  use 


Sugar-cutters 


these  loaves  of  sugar  in  his  household.  I  don't 
know  where  he  got  them  so  long  after  every  one  else 
had  apparently  ceased  buying  them  —  he  may  have 
specially  imported  them  ;  at  any  rate  he  had  them, 
and  to  the  end  of  her  life  it  was  the  morning  duty 
of  his  wife  "  to  cut  the  sugar/'  I  can  see  my  old 
cousin  still  in  what  she  termed  her  breakfast  room, 
dressed  very  handsomely,  standing  before  a  bare 


Meat  and  Drink 


x57 


mahogany  table  on  which  a  maid  placed  the  consid- 
erable array  of  a  silver  salver  without  legs,  which  was 
set  on  a  folded  cloth  and  held  the  sugar-loaf  and 
the  sugar-cutter ;  and  another  salver  with  legs  that 
bore  various  bowls  and  one  beautiful  silver  sugar-box 
which  was  kept  filled  high  for  her  husband's  toddy. 
It  seemed  an  interminably  tedious  work  to  me  and 
a  senseless  one,  as  I  chafingly  waited  for  the  delight- 
ful morning  drive  in  delightful  Boston.  It  was  in 
this  household  that  I  encountered  the  sweetest 
thing  of  my  whole  life  ;  I  have  written  elsewhere  its 
praises  in  full ;  a  barrel,  a  small  one,  to  be  sure,  but 


Spice-mortars  and  Spice-mills 


still  a  whole  teak-wood  barrel  full  of  long  strings  of 
glistening  rock-candy.  I  had  my  fill  of  it  at  will, 
though  it  was  not  kept  as  a  sweetmeat,  but  was  a 


158  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


kitchen  store  having  a  special  use  in  the  manufact- 
ure of  rich  brandy  sauces  for  plum  puddings,  and  of 
a  kind  of  marchepane  ornamentation  for  desserts. 

All  the  spices  used  in  the  household  were  also 
ground  at  home,  in  spice-mortars  and  spice-mills. 
These  were  of  various  sizes,  including  the  pepper- 
mills,  which  were  set  on  the  table  at  meal-times,  and 
the  tiny  ornamental  graters  which  were  carried  in 
the  pocket. 

The  entire  food  of  a  household  was  the  possible 
production  of  a  farm.  In  a  paper  published  in  the 
American  Museum  in  1787  an  old  farmer  says:  — 

u  At  this  time  my  farm  gave  me  and  my  whole  family  a 
good  living  on  the  produce  of  it,  and  left  me  one  year  with 
another  one  hundred  and  fifty  silver  dollars,  for  I  never 
spent  more  than  ten  dollars  a  year  which  was  for  salt,  nails, 
and  the  like.  Nothing  to  eat,  drink  or  wear  was  bought,  as 
my  farm  provided  all." 

The  farm  food  was  not  varied,  it  is  true,  as  to- 
day ;  for  articles  of  luxury  came  by  importation. 
The  products  of  tropical  countries,  such  as  sugar, 
molasses,  tea,  coffee,  spices,  found  poor  substitutes 
in  home  food-products.  Dried  pumpkin  was  a  poor 
sweetening  instead  of  molasses  ;  maple  sugar  and 
honey  were  not  esteemed  as  was  sugar ;  tea  was  ill- 
replaced  by  raspberry  leaves,  loosestrife,  hardhack, 


Meat  and  Drink 


l59 


goldenrod,  dittany,  blackberry  leaves,  yeopon,  sage, 
and  a  score  of  other  herbs ;  coffee  was  better  than 
parched  rye  and  chestnuts ;  spices  could  not  be 
compensated  for  or  remotely  imitated  by  any  sub- 
stitutes. 

So  though  there  was  ample  quantity  of  food,  the 
quality,  save  in  the  town,  was  not  such  as  English 
housewives  had  been  accustomed  to ;  there  were 
many  deprivations  in  their  kitchens  which  tried 
them  sorely.  The  better  cooks  they  were,  the  more 
trying  were  the  limitations.  Every  woman  with  a 
love  for  her  fellow-woman  must  feel  a  thrill  of  keen 
sympathy  for  the  goodwife  of  Newport,  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  had  to  make  her  Thanksgiving  mince- 
pies  with  a  filling  of  bear's  meat  and  dried  pumpkins, 
sweetened  with  maple  sugar,  and  her  crust  of  corn- 
meal.  Her  husband  loyally  recorded  that  they  were 
the  best  mince-pies  he  ever  ate. 

As  years  passed  on  and  great  wealth  came  to  indi- 
viduals, the  tables  of  the  opulent,  especially  in  the 
Middle  colonies,  rivalled  the  luxury  of  English  and 
French  houses  of  wealth.  It  is  surprising  to  read  in 
Dr.  Cutler's  diary  that  when  he  dined  with  Colonel 
Duer  in  New  York  in  1787,  there  were  fifteen  kinds 
of  wine  served  besides  cider,  beer,  and  porter. 

John  Adams  probably  lived  as  well  as  any  New 
Englander  of  similar  position  and  means.    A  Sun- 


160  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


day  dinner  at  his  house  was  thus  described  by  a 
visitor  :  the  first  course  was  a  pudding  of  Indian 
meal,  molasses,  and  butter;  then  came  a  course  of 
veal  and  bacon,  neck  of  mutton,  and  vegetables. 
When  the  New  Englander  went  to  Philadelphia,  his 
eyes  opened  wide  at  the  luxury  and  extravagance  of 
fare.  He  has  given  in  his  diary  some  accounts  of 
the  lavishness  of  the  Philadelphia  larder.  Such 
entries  as  these  are  found :  — 

(Of  the  home  of  Miers  Fisher,  a  young  Quaker  lawyer.) 
u  This  plain  Friend,  with  his  plain  but  pretty  wife  with 
her  Thees  and  Thous,  had  provided  us  a  costly  entertain- 
ment; ducks,  hams,  chickens,  beef,  pig,  tarts,  creams,  cus- 
tards, jellies,  fools,  trifles,  floating  islands,  beer,  porter, 
punch,  wine  and  a  long,  etc." 

(At  the  home  of  Chief  Justice  Chew.)  "  About  four 
o'clock  we  were  called  to  dinner.  Turtle  and  every  other 
thing,  flummery,  jellies,  sweetmeats  of  twenty  sorts,  trifles, 
whipped  sillabubs,  floating  islands,  fools,  etc.,  with  a  des- 
sert of  fruits,  raisins,  almonds,  pears,  peaches." 

"  A  most  sinful  feast  again !  everything  which  could  de- 
light the  eye  or  allure  the  taste;  curds  and  creams,  jellies, 
sweetmeats  of  various  sorts,  twenty  kinds  of  tarts,  fools, 
trifles,  floating  islands,  whipped  sillabubs,  etc.  Parmesan 
cheese,  punch,  wine,  porter,  beer." 

By  which  lists  may  plainly  be  seen  that  our 
second  President  had  somewhat  of  a  sweet  tooth. 


Meat  and  Drink  161 

The  Dutch  were  great  beer-drinkers  and  quickly 
established  breweries  at  Albany  and  New  York. 
But  before  the  century  had  ended  New  Englanders 
had  abandoned  the  constant  drinking  of  ale  and 
beer  for  cider.  Cider  was  very  cheap;  but  a  few 
shillings  a  barrel.  It  was  supplied  in  large  amounts 
to  students  at  college,  and  even  very  little  children 
drank  it.  President  John  Adams  was  an  early  and 
earnest  wisher  for  temperance  reform;  but  to  the 
end  of  his  life  he  drank  a  large  tankard  of  hard 
cider  every  morning  when  he  first  got  up.  It  was 
free  in  every  farmhouse  to  all  travellers  and  tramps. 

A  cider-mill  was  usually  built  on  a  hillside  so 
the  building  could  be  one  story  high  in  front  and 
two  in  the  back.  Thus  carts  could  easily  unload 
the  apples  on  the  upper  level  and  take  away  the 
barrels  of  cider  on  the  lower.  Standing  below  on 
the  lower  floor  you  could  see  two  upright  wooden 
cylinders,  set  a  little  way  apart,  with  knobs,  or 
nuts  as  they  were  called,  on  one  cylinder  which 
fitted  loosely  into  holes  on  the  other.  The  cylin- 
ders worked  in  opposite  directions  and  drew  in  and 
crushed  the  apples  poured  down  between  them. 
The  nuts  and  holes  frequently  clogged  with  the 
pomace.  Then  the  mill  was  stopped  and  a  boy 
scraped  out  with  a  stick  or  hook  the  crushed  ap- 
ples.   A  horse  walking  in  a  small  circle  moved  a 

M 


1 62  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


lever  which  turned  the  motor  wheel.  It  was  slow 
work ;  it  took  three  hours  to  grind  a  cart-load  of 
apples;  but  the  machinery  was  efficient  and  simple. 
The  pomace  fell  into  a  large  shallow  vat  or  tank, 
and  if  it  could  lie  in  the  vat  overnight  it  was  a 
benefit.  Then  the  pomace  was  put  in  a  press. 
This  was  simple  in  construction.  At  the  bottom  was 
a  platform  grooved  in  channels  ;  a  sheaf  of  clean 
straw  was  spread  on  the  platform,  and  with  wooden 
shovels  the  pomace  was  spread  thick  over  it.  Then  a 
layer  of  straw  was  laid  at  right  angles  with  the  first, 
and  more  pomace,  and  so  on  till  the  form  was  about 
three  feet  high;  the  top  board  was  put  on  as  a 
cover ;  the  screw  turned  and  blocks  pressed  down, 
usually  with  a  long  wooden  hand-lever,  ^very  slowly 
at  first,  then  harder,  until  the  mass  was  solid  and 
every  drop  of  juice  had  trickled  into  the  channels 
of  the  platform  and  thence  to  the  pan  below. 
Within  the  last  two  or  three  years  I  have  seen 
those  cider-mills  at  work  in  the  country  back  of  old 
Plymouth  and  in  Narragansett,  sending  afar  their 
sourly  fruity  odors.  And  though  apple  orchards 
are  running  out,  and  few  new  trees  are  planted,  and 
the  apple  crop  in  those  districts  is  growing  smaller 
and  smaller,  yet  is  the  sweet  cider  of  country  cider- 
mills  as  free  and  plentiful  a  gift  to  any  passer-by 
as  the  water  from  the  well  or  the  air  we  breathe. 


Meat  and  Drink 


Perry  was  made  from  pears,  as  cider  is  from  apples, 
and  peachy  from  peaches.  Metheglin  and  mead, 
drinks  of  the  old  Druids  in  England,  were  made 
from  honey,  yeast,  and  water,  and  were  popular 
everywhere.  In  Virginia  whole  plantations  of  the 
honey-locust  furnished  locust  beans  for  making  me- 
theglin. From  persimmons,  elderberries,  juniper 
berries,  pumpkins,  corn-stalks,  hickory  nuts,  sassa- 
fras bark,  birch  bark,  and  many  other  leaves,  roots, 
and  barks,  various  light  drinks  were  made.  An  old 
song  boasted  :  — 

"  Oh,  we  can  make  liquor  to  sweeten  our  lips 
Of  pumpkins,  of  parsnips,  of  walnut-tree  chips." 

Many  other  stronger  and  more  intoxicating 
liquors  were  made  in  large  quantities,  among  them 
enormous  amounts  of  rum,  which  was  called  often 
"  kill-devil/'  The  making  of  rum  aided  and  almost 
supported  the  slave-trade  in  this  country.  The 
poor  negroes  were  bought  on  the  coast  of  Africa 
by  New  England  sea-captains  and  merchants  and 
paid  for  with  barrels  of  New  England  rum.  These 
slaves  were  then  carried  on  slave-ships  to  the  West 
Indies,  and  sold  at  a  large  profit  to  planters  and 
slave-dealers  for  a  cargo  of  molasses.  This  was 
brought  to  New  England,  distilled  into  rum,  and 
sent  off  to  Africa.    Thus  the  circle  of  molasses, 


164  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


rum,  and  slaves  was  completed.  Many  slaves  were 
also  landed  in  New  England,  but  there  was  no  crop 
there  that  needed  negroes  to  raise  it.  So  slavery 
never  was  as  common  in  New  England  as  in  the 
South,  where  the  tropical  tobacco  and  rice  fields 
needed  negro  labor.  But  New  England's  share  in 
promoting  negro  slavery  in  America  was  just  as 
great  as  was  Virginia's. 

Besides  all  the  rum  that  was  sent  to  Africa,  much 
was  drunk  by  Americans  at  home.  At  weddings, 
funerals,  christenings,  at  all  public  meetings  and 
private  feasts,  New  England  rum  was  ever  present. 
In  nothing  is  more  contrast  shown  between  our 
present  day  and  colonial  times  than  in  the  habits 
of  liquor-drinking.  We  cannot  be  grateful  enough 
for  the  temperance  reform,  which  began  at  the  early 
part  of  this  century,  and  was  so  sadly  needed. 

For  many  years  the  colonists  had  no  tea,  choco- 
late, or  coffee  to  drink;  for  those  were  not  in  use  in 
England  when  America  was  settled.  In  1690  two 
dealers  were  licensed  to  sell  tea  "  in  publique  "  in 
Boston.  Green  and  bohea  teas  were  sold  at  the 
Boston  apothecaries'  in  17 12.  For  many  years  tea 
was  also  sold  like  medicine  in  England  at  the 
apothecaries'  and  not  at  the  grocers'. 

Many  queer  mistakes  were  made  through  igno- 
rance of  its  proper  use.     Many  colonists  put  the 


Meat  and  Drink  165 

tea  into  water,  boiled  it  for  a  time,  threw  the  liquid 
away,  and  ate  the  tea-leaves.  In  Salem  they  did 
not  find  the  leaves  very  attractive,  so  they  put 
butter  and  salt  on  them. 

In  1670  a  Boston  woman  was  licensed  to  sell 
coffee  and  chocolate,  and  soon  coffee-houses  were 
established  there.  Some  did  not  know  how  to  cook 
coffee  any  more  than  tea,  but  boiled  the  whole 
coffee-beans  in  water,  ate  them,  and  drank  the 
liquid ;  and  naturally  this  was  not  very  good  either 
to  eat  or  drink. 

At  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act,  when  patriotic 
Americans  threw  the  tea  into  Boston  harbor,  Ameri- 
cans were  just  as  great  tea-drinkers  as  the  English. 
Now  it  is  not  so.  The  English  drink  much  more 
tea  than  we  do  ;  and  the  habit  of  coffee-drinking, 
first  acquired  in  the  Revolution,  has  descended 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  we  now  drink 
more  coffee  than  tea.  This  is  one  of  the  differ- 
ences in  our  daily  life  caused  by  the  Revolution. 

Many  home-grown  substitutes  were  used  in  Rev- 
olutionary times  for  tea:  ribwort  was  a  favorite 
one;  strawberry  and  currant  leaves,  sage,  thorough- 
wort,  and  "  Liberty  Tea,"  made  from  the  four- 
leaved  loosestrife.  "  Hyperion  tea  "  was  raspberry 
leaves,  and  was  said  by  good  patriots  to  be  "  very 
delicate  and  most  excellent. " 


\ 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FLAX   CULTURE   AND  SPINNING 

IN  recounting  the  various  influences  which  as- 
sisted the  Americans  to  success  in  the  War  for 
Independence,  such  as  the  courage  and  integ- 
rity of  the  American  generals,  the  generosity  of  the 
American  people,  the  skill  of  Americans  in  marks- 
manship, their  powers  of  endurance,  their  acclima- 
tization, their  confidence  and  faith,  etc.,  we  must 
never  forget  to  add  their  independence  in  their 
own  homes  of  any  outside  help  to  give  them  every 
necessity  of  life.  No  farmer  or  his  wife  need  fear 
any  king  when  on  every  home  farm  was  found  food, 
drink,  medicine,  fuel,  lighting,  clothing,  shelter. 
Home-made  was  an  adjective  that  might  be  applied 
to  nearly  every  article  in  the  house.  Such  would 
not  be  the  case  under  similar  stress  to-day.  In  the 
matter  of  clothing  alone  we  could  not  now  be  inde- 
pendent. Few  farmers  raise  flax  to  make  linen; 
few  women  can  spin  either  wool  or  flax,  or  weave 
cloth;  many  cannot  knit.  In  early  days  every 
farmer  and  his  sons  raised  wool  and  flax;  his  wife 

166 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning 


167 


and  daughters  spun  them  into  thread  and  yarn, 
knit  these  into  stockings  and  mittens,  or  wove  them 
into  linen  and  cloth,  and  then  made  them  into 
clothing.  Even  in  large  cities  nearly  all  women 
spun  yarn  and  thread,  all  could  knit,  and  many 
had  hand-looms  to  weave  cloth  at  home.  These 
home  occupations  in  the  production  of  clothing 
have  been  very  happily  termed  the  "  homespun 
industries/' 

Nearly  every  one  has  seen  one  of  the  pretty  foot- 
wheels  for  spinning  flax  thread  for  linen,  which  may 
yet  be  found  in  the  attics  of  many  of  our  farm- 
houses, as  well  as  in  some  of  our  parlors,  where, 
with  a  bunch  of  flax  wound  around  and  tied  to  the 
spindle,  they  have  within  a  few  years  been  placed 
as  a  relic  of  the  olden  times. 

If  one  of  these  flax-wheels  could  speak  to-day,  it 
would  sing  a  tale  of  the  patient  industry,  of  the 
tiring  work  of  our  grandmothers,  even  when  they 
were  little  children,  which  ought  never  to  be  for- 
gotten. 

As  soon  as  the  colonists  had  cleared  their  farms 
from  stones  and  stumps,  they  planted  a  field,  or 
"patch"  of  flax,  and  usually  one  of  hemp.  The 
seed  was  sown  broadcast  like  grass-seed  in  May. 
Flax  is  a  graceful  plant  with  pretty  drooping  blue 
flowers  ;  hemp  has  but  a  sad-colored  blossom. 


1 68  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Thomas  Tusser  says  in  his  Book  of  House- 
wifery :  — 

"  Good  flax  and  good  hemp  to  have  of  her  own, 
In  May  a  good  huswife  will  see  it  be  sown. 
And  afterwards  trim  it  to  serve  in  a  need ; 
The  fimble  to  spin,  the  card  for  her  seed." 

When  the  flax  plants  were  three  or  four  inches 
high,  they  were  weeded  by  young  women  or  chil- 
dren who  had  to  work  barefoot,  as  the  stalks  were 
very  tender.  If  the  land  had  a  growth  of  thistles, 
the  weeders  could  wear  three  or  four  pairs  of  woollen 
stockings.  The  children  had  to  step  facing  the 
wind,  so  if  any  plants  were  trodden  down  the  wind 
would  help  to  blow  them  back  into  place.  When 
the  flax  was  ripe,  in  the  last  of  June  or  in  July,  it 
was  pulled  up  by  the  roots  and  laid  out  carefully  to 
dry  for  a  day  or  two,  and  turned  several  times  in 
the  sun  ;  this  work  was  called  pulling  and  spread- 
ing, and  was  usually  done  by  men  and  boys.  It 
then  was  "  rippled."  A  coarse  wooden  or  heavy 
iron  wire  comb  with  great  teeth,  named  a  ripple- 
comb,  was  fastened  on  a  plank  ;  the  stalks  of  flax 
were  drawn  through  it  with  a  quick  stroke  to  break 
off  the  seed-bolles  or  "  bobs,"  which  fell  on  a  sheet 
spread  to  catch  them ;  these  were  saved  for  seed  for 
the  next  crop,  or  for  sale. 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning  169 


Rippling  was  done  in  the  field.  The  stalks  were 
then  tied  in  bundles  called  beats  or  bates  and 
stacked.  They  were  tied  only  at  the  seed  end,  and 
the  base  of  the  stalks  was  spread  out  forming  a 
tent-shaped  stack,  called  a  stook.  When  dry,  the 
stalks  were  watered  to  rot  the  leaves  and  softer 
fibres.  Hemp  was  watered  without  rippling.  This 
was  done  preferably  in  running  water,  as  the  rotting 
flax  poisoned  fish.  Stakes  were  set  in  the  water  in 
the  form  of  a  square,  called  a  steep-pool,  and  the 
bates  of  flax  or  hemp  were  piled  in  solidly,  each 
alternate  layer  at  right  angles  with  the  one  beneath 
it.  A  cover  of  boards  and  heavy  stones  was 
piled  on  top.  In  four  or  five  days  the  bates  were 
taken  up  and  the  rotted  leaves  removed.  A  slower 
process  was  termed  dew-retting ;  an  old  author 
calls  it  "a  vile  and  naughty  way,"  but  it  was  the 
way  chiefly  employed  in  America. 

When  the  flax  was  cleaned,  it  was  once  more 
dried  and  tied  in  bundles.  Then  came  work  for 
strong  men,  to  break  it  on  the  ponderous  flax-brake, 
to  separate  the  fibres  and  get  out  from  the  centre 
the  hard  woody  "hexe"  or  "bun."  Hemp  was 
also  broken. 

A  flax-brake  is  an  implement  which  is  almost 
impossible  to  describe.  It  was  a  heavy  log  of  wood 
about  five  feet  long,  either  large  enough  so  the  flat 


170  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


top  was  about  three  feet  from  the  ground,  or  set  on 
heavy  logs  to  bring  it  to  that  height.  A  portion  of 
the  top  was  cut  down  leaving  a  block  at  each  end, 

  and  several 

long  slats  were 
set  in  length- 
wise and  held 
firm  at  each 
end  with  edges 
up,  by  being  set 
into  the  end 
blocks.  Then 
a  similar  set  of 
slats,  put  in  a 
heavy  frame, 
\  was  made  with 
the  slats  set  far 
enough  apart 
to  go  into  the 
spaces  of  the 
lower  slats. 

The  flax  was  laid  on  the  lower  slats,  the  frame 
and  upper  slats  placed  on  it,  and  then  pounded 
down  with  a  heavy  wooden  mallet  weighing  many 
pounds.  Sometimes  the  upper  frame  of  slats,  or 
knives  as  they  were  called,  were  hinged  to  the  big 
under  log  at  one  end,  and  heavily  weighted  at  the 


Flax-brake 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning 


other,  and  thus  the  blow  was  given  by  the  fall  of 
the  weight,  not  by  the  force  of  the  farmer's  muscle. 
The  tenacity  of  the  flax  can  be  seen  when  it  would 
stand  this  violent  beating ;  and  the  cruel  blow  can 
be  imagined,  which  the  farmer's  fingers  sometimes 
got  when  he  care- 
lessly thrust  his 
hand  with  the 
flax  too  far  under 
the  descending 
jaw  —  a  shark's 
maw  was  equally 
gentle. 

Flax  was  usu- 
ally broken  twice, 
once  with  an 
"  open  -  tooth 
brake,"  once  with 
a  "  close  or  strait 
brake,"  that  is, 
one  where  the 
long,  sharp-edge 
strips  of  wood 
were  set  closely 
together.  Then  it  was  scutched  or  swingled  with 
a  swingling  block  and  knife,  to  take  out  any  small 
particles  of  bark  that  might  adhere.    A  man  could 


Swingling  Block  and  Swingling  Knives 


172  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


swingle  forty  pounds  of  flax  a  day,  but  it  was  hard 
work.  All  this  had  to  be  done  in  clear  sunny 
weather  when  the  flax  was  as  dry  as  tinder. 

The  clean  fibres  were  then  made  into  bundles 
called  strikes.  The  strikes  were  swingled  again, 
and  from  the  refuse  called  swingle-tree  hurds,  coarse 
bagging  could  be  spun  and  woven.  After  being 
thoroughly  cleaned  the  rolls  or  strikes  were  some- 
times beetled,  that  is,  pounded  in  a  wooden  trough 
with  a  great  pestle-shaped  beetle  over  and  over 
again  until  soft. 

Then  came  the  hackling  or  hetcheling,  and  the 
fineness  of  the  flax  depended  upon  the  number  of 
hacklings,  the  fineness  of  the  various  hackles  or 
hetchels  or  combs,  and  the  dexterity  of  the  operator. 
In  the  hands  of  a  poor  hackler  the  best  of  flax 
would  be  converted  into  tow.  The  flax  was  slightly 
wetted,  taken  hold  of  at  one  end  of  the  bunch,  and 
drawn  through  the  hackle-teeth  towards  the  hetchel- 
ler,  and  thus  fibres  were  pulled  and  laid  into  con- 
tinuous threads,  while  the  short  fibres  were  combed 
out.  It  was  dusty,  dirty  work.  The  threefold 
process  had  to  be  all  done  at  once;  the  fibres  had 
to  be  divided  to  their  fine  filaments,  the  long 
threads  laid  in  untangled  line,  and  the  tow  sepa- 
rated and  removed.  After  the  first  hackle,  called  a 
ruffler,  six  other  finer  hackles  were  often  used.  It 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning  173 


Flax,  Flax  Basket,  Flax  Hetchels 


was  one  of  the  surprises  of  flax  preparation  to  see 
how  little  good  fibre  would  be  left  after  all  this 
hackling,  even  from  a  large  mass  of  raw  material, 
but  it  was  equally  surprising  to  see  how  much  linen 
thread  could  be  made  from  this  small  amount  of 
fine  flax.  The  fibres  were  sorted  according  to  fine- 
ness ;  this  was  called  spreading  and  drawing.  So 
then  after  over  twenty  dexterous  manipulations  the 


174  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


flax  was  ready  for  the  wheel,  for  spinning,  —  the 
most  dexterous  process  of  all,  —  and  was  wrapped 
round  the  spindle. 

Seated  at  the  small  flax-wheel,  the  spinner  placed 

her  foot  on 
the  treadle,  and 
spun  the  fibre 
into  a  long, 
even  thread. 
Hung  on  the 
wheel  was  a 
small  bone, 
wood,  or  earth- 
enware cup,  or 
a  gourd-shell, 
filled  with  wa- 
ter, in  which 
the  spinner 
moistened  her 
fingers  as  she 
held  the  twist- 

Clock-reel  .  n  i  •  1 

ing  nax,  which 

by  the  movement  of  the  wheel  was  wound  on  bob- 
bins. When  all  were  filled,  the  thread  was  wound  off 
in  knots  and  skeins  on  a  reel.  A  machine  called  a 
clock-reel  counted  the  exact  number  of  strands  in 
a  knot,  usually  forty,  and  ticked  when  the  requisite 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning  175 


number  had  been  wound.  Then  the  spinner  would 
stop  and  tie  the  knot.  A  quaint  old  ballad  has  the 
refrain  :  — 

"  And  he  kissed  Mistress  Polly  when  the  clock-reel  ticked." 

That  is,  the  lover  seized  the  rare  and  propitious 
moments  of  Mistress  Polly's  comparative  leisure 
to  kiss  her. 

Usually  the  knots  or  lays  were  of  forty  threads, 
and  twenty  lays  made  a  skein  or  slipping.  The 
number  varied,  however,  with  locality.  To  spin 
two  skeins  of  linen  thread  was  a  good  day's  work ; 
for  it  a  spinner  was  paid  eight  cents  a  day  and  "  her 
keep." 

These  skeins  of  thread  had  to  be  bleached.  They 
were  laid  in  warm  water  for  four  days,  the  water 
being  frequently  changed,  and  the  skeins  constantly 
wrung  out.  Then  they  were  washed  in  the  brook 
till  the  water  came  from  them  clear  and  pure.  Then 
they  were  "bucked/'  that  is,  bleached  with  ashes 
and  hot  water,  in  a  bucking-tub,  over  and  over 
again,  then  laid  in  clear  water  for  a  week,  and 
afterwards  came  a  grand  seething,  rinsing,  beating, 
washing,  drying,  and  winding  on  bobbins  for  the 
loom.  Sometimes  the  bleaching  was  done  with 
slaked  lime  or  with  buttermilk. 

These  were  not  the  only  bleaching  operations  the 


176  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


flax  went  through ;  others  will  be  detailed  in  the 
chapter  on  hand-weaving. 

One  lucrative  product  of  flax  should  be  men- 
tioned—  flaxseed.  Flax  was  pulled  for  spinning 
when  the  base  of  the  stalk  began  to  turn  yellow, 
which  was  usually  the  first  of  July.  An  old  saying 
was,  "June  brings  the  flax/'  For  seed  it  stood  till 
it  was  all  yellow.  The  flaxseed  was  used  for  mak- 
ing oil.  Usually  the  upper  chambers  of  country 
stores  were  filled  a  foot  deep  with  flaxseed  in  the 
autumn,  waiting  for  good  sleighing  to  convey  the 
seed  to  town. 

In  New  Hampshire  in  early  days,  a  wheelwright 
was  not  a  man  who  made  wagon-wheels  (as  such  he 
would  have  had  scant  occupation),  but  one  who 
made  spinning-wheels.  Often  he  carried  them 
around  the  country  on  horseback  selling  them, 
thus  adding  another  to  the  many  interesting  itinera- 
cies of  colonial  days.  Spinning-wheels  would  seem 
clumsy  for  horse-carriage,  but  they  were  not  set  up, 
and  several  could  be  compactly  carried  when  taken 
apart ;  far  more  ticklish  articles  went  on  pack- 
horses,  —  large  barrels,  glazed  window-sashes,  etc. 
Nor  would  it  seem  very  difficult  for  a  man  to  carry 
spinning-wheels  on  horseback,  when  frequently  a 
woman  would  jump  on  horseback  in  the  early  morn- 
ing, and  with  a  baby  on  one  arm  and  a  flax-wheel 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning  177 


tied  behind,  would  ride  several  miles  to  a  neighbor's 
to  spend  the  day  spinning  in  cheerful  companion- 
ship. A  century  ago  one  of  these  wheelwrights 
sold  a  fine  spinning-wheel  for  a  dollar,  a  clock-reel 
for  two  dollars,  and  a  wool-wheel  for  two  dollars. 

Few  persons  are  now  living  who  have  ever  seen 
carried  on  in  a  country  home  in  America  any  of 
these  old-time  processes  which  have  been  recounted. 
As  an  old  antiquary  wrote  :  — 

"  Few  have  ever  seen  a  woman  hatchel  flax  or  card  tow, 
or  heard  the  buzzing  of  the  foot-wheel,  or  seen  bunches  of 
flaxen  yarn  hanging  in  the  kitchen,  or  linen  cloth  whitening 
on  the  grass.  The  flax-dresser  with  the  shives,  fibres,  and 
dirt  of  flax  covering  his  garments,  and  his  face  begrimed 
with  flax-dirt  has  disappeared;  the  noise  of  his  brake  and 
swingling  knife  has  ended,  and  the  boys  no  longer  make 
bonfires  of  his  swingling  tow.  The  sound  of  the  spinning- 
wheel,  the  song  of  the  spinster,  and  the  snapping  of  the 
clock-reel  all  have  ceased;  the  warping  bars  and  quill  wheel 
are  gone,  and  the  thwack  of  the  loom  is  heard  only  in  the 
factory.  The  spinning  woman  of  King  Lemuel  cannot  be 
found." 

Frequent  references  are  made  to  flax  in  the  Bible, 
notably  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  ;  and  the  methods 
of  growing  and  preparing  flax  by  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians were  precisely  the  same  as  those  of  the  Ameri- 
can colonist  a  hundred  years  ago,  of  the  Finn,  Lapp, 

N 


178  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Norwegian,  and  Belgian  flax-growers  to-day.  This 
ancient  skill  was  not  confined  to  flax-working. 
Rosselini,  the  eminent  hierologist,  says  that  every 
modern  craftsman  may  see  on  Egyptian  monuments 
four  thousand  years  old,  representations  of  the 
process  of  his  craft  just  as  it  is  carried  on  to-day. 
The  paintings  in  the  Grotto  of  El  Kab,  shown  in 
Hamilton's  Mgyptica^  show  the  pulling,  stocking, 
tying,  and  rippling  of  flax  going  on  just  as  it  is 
done  in  Egypt  now.  The  four-tooth  ripple  of  the 
Egyptian  is  improved  upon,  but  it  is  the  same 
implement.  Pliny  gives  an  account  of  the  mode 
of  preparing  flax  :  plucking  it  up  by  the  roots,  tying 
it  in  bundles,  drying,  watering,  beating,  and  hackling 
it,  or,  as  he  says,  "  combing  it  with  iron  hooks." 
Until  the  Christian  era  linen  was  almost  the  only 
kind  of  clothing  used  in  Egypt,  and  the  teeming 
banks  of  the  Nile  furnished  flax  in  abundance.  The 
quality  of  the  linen  can  be  seen  in  the  bands  pre- 
served on  mummies.  It  was  not,  however,  spun  on 
a  wheel,  but  on  a  hand-distaff,  called  sometimes  a 
rock,  on  which  the  women  in  India  still  spin  the 
very  fine  thread  which  is  employed  in  making  India 
muslins.  The  distaff*  was  used  in  our  colonies ;  it 
was  ordered  that  children  and  others  tending  sheep 
or  cattle  in  the  fields  should  also  "  be  set  to  some 
other  employment  withal,  such  as  spinning  upon 


FJax  Culture  and  Spinning 


179 


the  rock,  knitting,  weaving  tape,  etc."  I  heard 
recently  a  distinguished  historian  refer  in  a  lecture 
to  this  colonial  statute,  and  he  spoke  of  the  children 
sitting  upon  a  rock  while  knitting  or  spinning,  etc., 
evidently  knowing  naught  of  the  proper  significa- 
tion of  the  word. 

The  homespun  industries  have  ever  been  held  to 
have  a  beneficent  and  peace-bringing  influence  on 
women.  Wordsworth  voiced  this  sentiment  when 
he  wrote  his  series  of  sonnets  beginning  :  — 

"  Grief!  thou  hast  lost  an  ever-ready  friend 
Now  that  the  cottage  spinning-wheel  is  mute." 

Chaucer  more  cynically  says,  through  the  Wife  of 
Bath  :  — 

"  Deceite,  weepynge,  spynnynge  God  hath  give 
To  wymmen  kyndely  that  they  may  live." 

Spinning  doubtless  was  an  ever-ready  refuge  in 
the  monotonous  life  of  the  early  colonist.  She  soon 
had  plenty  of  material  to  work  with.  Everywhere, 
even  in  the  earliest  days,  the  culture  of  flax  was 
encouraged.  Bv  1640  the  Court  of  Massachusetts 
passed  two  orders  directing  the  growth  of  flax,  ascer- 
taining what  colonists  were  skilful  in  breaking,  spin- 
ning, weaving,  ordering  that  boys  and  girls  be 
taught  to  spin,  and  offering  a  bounty  for  linen 


180  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


grown,  spun,  and  woven  in  the  colony.  Connecti- 
cut passed  similar  measures.  Soon  spinning-classes 
were  formed,  and  every  family  ordered  to  spin  so 
many  pounds  of  flax  a  year,  or  to  pay  a  fine.  The 
industry  received  a  fresh  impulse  through  the  immi- 
gration of  about  one  hundred  Irish  families  from 
Londonderry.  They  settled  in  New  Hampshire  on 
the  Merrimac  about  1719,  and  spun  and  wove 
with  far  more  skill  than  prevailed  among  those 
English  settlers  who  had  already  become  Americans. 
They  established  a  manufactory  according  to  Irish 
methods,  and  attempts  at  a  similar  establishment 
were  made  in  Boston. 

There  was  much  public  excitement  over  spinning, 
and  prizes  were  offered  for  quantity  and  quality. 
Women,  rich  as  well  as  poor,  appeared  on  Boston 
Common  with  their  wheels,  thus  making  spinning  a 
popular  holiday  recreation.  A  brick  building  was 
erected  as  a  spinning-school  costing  ^15,000,  and 
a  tax  was  placed  on  carriages  and  coaches  in  1757 
to  support  it.  At  the  fourth  anniversary  in  1749  of 
the  "  Boston  Society  for  promoting  Industry  and 
Frugality/'  three  hundred  "  young  spinsters  "  spun 
on  their  wheels  on  Boston  Common.  And  a  pretty 
sight  it  must  have  been  :  the  fair  young  girls  in  the 
quaint  and  pretty  dress  of  the  times,  shown  to  us  in 
Hogarth's  prints,  spinning  on  the  green  grass  under 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning  1 8 1 

the  great  trees.  In  1754,  on  a  like  occasion,  a 
minister  preached  to  the  "  spinsters/'  and  a  collec- 
tion of  X453  was  taken  UP-  This  was  in  currency 
of  depreciated  value.  At  the  same  time  premiums 
were  offered  in  Pennsylvania  for  weaving  linen  and 
spinning  thread.  Benjamin  Franklin  wrote  in  his 
Poor  Richard's  Almanac  :  — 

"  Many  estates  are  spent  in  the  getting, 
Since  women  for  tea  forsook  spinning  and  knitting." 

But  the  German  colonists  long  before  this  had  been 
famous  flax-raisers.  A  Pennsylvania  poet  in  1692 
descanted  on  the  flax-workers  of  Germantown  :  — 

u  Where  live  High  German  people  and  Low  Dutch 
Whose  trade  in  weaving  linen  cloth  is  much, 
There  grows  the  flax  as  also  you  may  know, 
That  from  the  same  they  do  divide  the  tow." 

Father  Pastorius,  their  leader,  forever  commemo- 
rated his  interest  in  his  colony  and  in  the  textile 
arts  by  his  choice  for  a  device  for  a  seal.  Whittier 
thus  describes  it  in  his  Pennsylvania  Pilgrim  :  — 

"  Still  on  the  town-seal  his  device  is  found, 
Grapes,  flax,  and  thread-spool  on  a  three-foil  ground 
With  Vinum,  Linum,  et  Textrinum  wound." 

Virginia  was  earlier  even  in  awakening  interest  in 
manufacturing  flax  than  Massachusetts,  for  wild  flax 


182 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


grew  there  in  profusion,  ready  for  gathering.  In 
1646  two  houses  were  ordered  to  be  erected  at 
Jamestown  as  spinning-schools.  These  were  to  be 
well  built  and  well  heated.  Each  county  was  to 
send  to  these  schools  two  poor  children,  seven  or 
eight  years  old,  to  be  taught  carding,  spinning,  and 
knitting.  Each  child  was  to  be  supplied  by  the 
county  authorities  on  admission  to  the  school  with 
six  barrels  of  Indian  corn,  a  pig,  two  hens,  clothing, 
shoes,  a  bed,  rug,  blanket,  two  coverlets,  a  wooden 
tray,  and  two  pewter  dishes  or  cups.  This  plan  was 
not  wholly  carried  out.  Prizes  in  tobacco  (which 
was  the  current  money  of  Virginia  in  which  every- 
thing was  paid)  were  given,  however,  for  every 
pound  of  flax,  every  skein  of  yarn,  every  yard  of 
linen  of  Virginia  production,  and  soon  flax-wheels 
and  spinners  were  plentiful. 

Intelligent  attempts  were  made  to  start  these 
industries  in  the  South.  Governor  Lucas  wrote  to 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Pinckney,  in  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  in  1745  :  — 

"  I  send  by  this  Sloop  two  Irish  servants,  viz. :  a  Weaver 
and  a  Spinner.  I  am  informed  Mr.  Cattle  hath  produced 
both  Flax  and  Hemp.  I  pray  you  will  purchase  some,  and 
order  a  loom  and  spinning-wheel  to  be  made  for  them,  and 
set  them  to  work.  I  shall  order  Flax  sent  from  Philadel- 
phia with  seed,  that  they  may  not  be  idle.     I  pray  you  will 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning 


also  purchase  Wool  and  sett  them  to  making  Negroes  cloth- 
ing which  may  be  sufficient  for  my  own  People. 

"  As  I  am  afraid  one  Spinner  can't  keep  a  Loom  at  work, 
I  pray  you  will  order  a  Sensible  Negroe  woman  or  two  to 
learn  to  spin,  and  wheels  to  be  made  for  them ;  the  man 
Servant  will  direct  the  Carpenter  in  making  the  loom  and 
the  woman  will  direct  the  Wheel." 

The  following  year  Madam  Pinckney  wrote  to 
her  father  that  the  woman  had  spun  all  the  material 
they  could  get,  so  was  idle  ;  that  the  loom  had  been 
made,  but  had  no  tackling ;  that  she  would  make 
the  harness  for  it,  if  two  pounds  of  shoemaker's 
thread  were  sent  her.  The  sensible  negro  woman 
and  hundreds  of  others  learned  well  to  spin,  and 
excellent  cloth  has  been  always  woven  in  the  low 
country  of  Carolina,  as  well  as  in  the  upper  districts, 
till  our  own  time. 

In  the  revolt  of  feeling  caused  by  the  Stamp  Act, 
there  was  a  constant  social  pressure  to  encourage 
the  manufacture  and  wearing  of  goods  of  American 
manufacture.  As  one  evidence  of  this  movement 
the  president  and  first  graduating  class  of  Rhode 
Island  College  —  now  Brown  University  —  were 
clothed  in  fabrics  made  in  New  England.  From 
Massachusetts  to  South  Carolina  the  women  of  the 
colonies  banded  together  in  patriotic  societies  called 
Daughters  of  Liberty,  agreeing  to  wear  only  gar- 


184  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

ments  of  homespun  manufacture,  and  to  drink  no 
tea.  In  many  New  England  towns  they  gathered 
together  to  spin,  each  bringing  her  own  wheel.  At 
one  meeting  seventy  linen-wheels  were  employed. 
In  Rowley,  Massachusetts,  the  meeting  of  the 
Daughters  is  thus  described :  — 

"  A  number  of  thirty-three  respectable  ladies  of  the  town 
met  at  sunrise  with  their  wheels  to  spend  the  day  at  the 
house  of  the  Rev'd  Jedediah  Jewell,  in  the  laudable  design 
of  a  spinning  match.  At  an  hour  before  sunset,  the  ladies 
there  appearing  neatly  dressed,  principally  in  homespun,  a 
polite  and  generous  repast  of  American  production  was  set 
for  their  entertainment.  After  which  being  present  many 
spectators  of  both  sexes,  Mr.  Jewell  delivered  a  profitable 
discourse  from  Romans  xii.  2  :  u  Not  slothful  in  business, 
fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord." 

Matters  of  church  and  patriotism  were  never  far 
apart  in  New  England ;  so  whenever  the  spinners 
gathered  at  New  London,  Newbury,  Ipswich,  or 
Beverly,  they  always  had  an  appropriate  sermon. 
A  favorite  text  was  Exodus  xxxv.  25  :  "  And  all 
the  women  that  were  wise-hearted  did  spin  with 
their  hands/'  When  the  Northboro  women  met, 
they  presented  the  results  of  their  day's  work  to 
their  minister.  There  were  forty-four  women  and 
they  spun  2223  knots  of  linen  and  tow,  and  wove 
one  linen  sheet  and  two  towels, 


Flax  Culture  and  Spinning  185 


By  Revolutionary  times  General  Howe  thought 
"  Linen  and  Woollen  Goods  much  wanted  by  the 
Rebels"  ;  hence  when  he  prepared  to  evacuate  Boston 
he  ordered  all  such  goods  carried  away  with  him. 
But  he  little  knew  the  domestic  industrial  resources 
of  the  Americans.  Women  were  then  most  profi- 
cient in  spinning.  In  1777  Miss  Eleanor  Fry  of 
East  Greenwich,  Rhode  Island,  spun  seven  skeins  one 
knot  linen  yarn  in  one  day,  an  extraordinary  amount. 
This  was  enough  to  weave  twelve  linen  handker- 
chiefs. At  this  time  when  there  were  about  five  or 
six  skeins  to  a  pound  of  flax,  the  pay  for  spinning 
was  sixpence  a  skein.  The  Abbe  Robin  wondered 
at  the  deftness  of  New  England  spinners. 

In  1789  an  outcry  was  raised  against  the  luxury 
said  to  be  eating  away  the  substance  of  the  new 
country.  The  poor  financial  administration  of  the 
government  seemed  deranging  everything;  and  again 
a  social  movement  was  instituted  in  New  England 
to  promote  "  Oeconomy  and  Household  Indus- 
tries." "  The  Rich  and  Great  strive  by  example  to 
convince  the  Populace  of  their  error  by  Growing 
their  own  Flax  and  Wool,  having  some  one  in  the 
Family  to  dress  it,  and  all  the  Females  spin,  several 
weave  and  bleach  the  linen."  The  old  spinning- 
matches  were  revived.  Again  the  ministers  preached 
to  the  faithful  women  "  Oeconomists,"  who  thus 


1 86  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


combined  religion,  patriotism,  and  industry.  Truly 
it  was,  as  a  contemporary  writer  said,  "  a  pleasing 
Sight :  some  spinning,  some  reeling,  some  carding 
cotton,  some  combing  flax,"  as  they  were  preached 
to. 

Within  a  few  years  attempts  have  been  made  in 
England  and  Ireland  to  encourage  flax-growing,  as 
before  it  is  spun  it  gives  employment  to  twenty  dif- 
ferent classes  of  laborers,  many  parts  of  which  work 
can  be  done  by  young  and  unskilled  children.  In 
Courtrai,  where  hand  spinning  and  weaving  of  flax 
still  flourish,  the  average  earnings  of  a  family  are 
three  pounds  a  week.  In  Finland  homespun  linen 
still  is  made  in  every  household.  The  British 
Spinning  and  Weaving  School  in  New  Bond  Street 
is  an  attempt  to  revive  the  vanished  industry  in 
England.  In  our  own  country  it  is  pleasant  to 
record  that  the  National  Association  of  Cotton 
Manufacturers  is  planning  to  start  on  a  large  scale 
the  culture  and  manufacture  of  flax  in  our  Eastern 
states;  this  is  not,  however,  with  any  thought  of 
reviving  either  the  preparation,  spinning,  or  weaving 
of  flax  by  old-time  hand  processes. 


Flax-spinning 


CHAPTER  IX 

WOOL   CULTURE   AND  SPINNING 

With  a  Postscript  on  Cotton 

THE  art  of  spinning  was  an  honorable  occu- 
pation for  women  as  early  as  the  ninth 
century;  and  it  was  so  universal  that  it 
furnished  a  legal  title  by  which  an  unmarried 
woman  is  known  to  this  day.  Spinster  is  the  only 
one  of  all  her  various  womanlv  titles  that  survives: 
webster,  shepster,  litster,  brewster,  and  baxter  are 
obsolete.  The  occupations  are  also  obsolete  save 
those  indicated  by  shepster  and  baxter  —  that  is, 
the  cutting  out  of  cloth  and  baking  of  bread  ;  these 
are  the  only  duties  among  them  all  that  she  still 
performs. 

The  wool  industry  dates  back  to  prehistoric  man. 
The  patience,  care,  and  skill  involved  in  its  manu- 
facture have  ever  exercised  a  potent  influence  on 
civilization.  It  is,  therefore,  interesting  and  grati- 
fying to  note  the  intelligent  eagerness  of  our  first 
colonists  for  wool  culture.     It  was  quickly  and 

proudly  noted  of  towns  and  of  individuals  as  a 

187 


1 88  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


proof  of  their  rapid  and  substantial  progress  that 
they  could  carry  on  any  of  the  steps  of  the  cloth 
industry.  Good  Judge  Sewall  piously  exulted 
when  Brother  Moody  started  a  successful  fulling- 
mill  in  Boston.  Johnson  in  his  Wonder-working 
Providence  tells  with  pride  that  by  1654  New  Eng- 
landers  "  have  a  fulling-mill  and  caused  their  little 
ones  to  be  very  dilligent  in  spinning  cotton-woole, 
many  of  them  having  been  clothiers  in  England." 
This  has  ever  seemed  to  me  one  of  the  fortunate 
conditions  that  tended  to  the  marked  success  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  that  so  many  had  been 
"  clothiers  "  or  cloth-workers  in  England;  or  had 
come  from  shires  in  England  where  wool  was  raised 
and  cloth  made,  and  hence  knew  the  importance  of 
the  industry  as  well  as  its  practical  workings. 

As  early  as  1643  t^le  author  of  New  England's  First 
Fruits  wrote:  "They  are  making  linens,  fustians, 
dimities,  and  look  immediately  to  woollens  from 
their  own  sheep."  Johnson  estimated  the  number 
of  sheep  in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts,  about  1644, 
as  three  thousand.  Soon  the  great  wheel  was  whir- 
ring in  every  New  England  house.  The  raising  of 
sheep  was  encouraged  in  every  way.  They  were 
permitted  to  graze  on  the  commons ;  it  was  for- 
bidden to  send  them  from  the  colony;  no  sheep 
under  two  years  old  could  be  killed  to  sell ;  if  a  dog 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  189 


killed  a  sheep,  the  dog's  owner  must  hang  him  and 
pay  double  the  cost  of  the  sheep.  All  persons  who 
were  not  employed  in  other  ways,  as  single  women, 
girls,  and  boys,  were  required  to  spin.  Each  family 
must  contain  one  spinner.  These  spinners  were 
formed  into  divisions  or  "  squadrons  "  of  ten  per- 
sons; each  division  had  a  director.  There  were  no 
drones  in  this  hive ;  neither  the  wealth  nor  high 
station  of  parents  excused  children  from  this  work. 
Thus  all  were  levelled  to  one  kind  of  labor,  and 
by  this  levelling  all  were  also  elevated  to  indepen- 
dence. When  the  open  expression  of  revolt  came, 
the  homespun  industries  seemed  a  firm  rock  for  the 
foundation  of  liberty.  People  joined  in  agreements 
to  eat  no  lamb  or  mutton,  that  thus  sheep  might  be 
preserved,  and  to  wear  no  imported  woollen  cloth. 
They  gave  prizes  for  spinning  and  weaving. 

Great  encouragement  was  given  in  Virginia  in 
early  days  to  the  raising  and  manufacture  of  wool. 
The  Assembly  estimated  that  five  children  not  over 
thirteen  years  of  age  could  by  their  work  readily 
spin  and  weave  enough  to  keep  thirty  persons 
clothed.  Six  pounds  of  tobacco  was  paid  to  any 
one  bringing  to  the  county  court-house  where  he 
resided  a  yard  of  homespun  woollen  cloth,  made 
wholly  in  his  family;  twelve  pounds  of  tobacco 
were  offered  for  reward  for  a  dozen  pair  of  wool- 


190  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


len  hose  knitted  at  home.  Slaves  were  taught  to 
spin ;  and  wool-wheels  and  wool-cards  are  found 
by  the  eighteenth  century  on  every  inventory  of 
planters'  house  furnishings. 

The  Pennsylvania  settlers  were  early  in  the  en- 
couragement of  wool  manufacture.  The  present 
industry  of  hosiery  and  knit  goods  long  known  as 
Germantown  goods  began  with  the  earliest  settlers 
of  that  Pennsylvania  town.  Stocking-weavers  were 
there  certainly  as  early  as  1723;  and  it  is  asserted 
there  were  knitting-machines.  At  any  rate,  one 
Mack,  the  son  of  the  founder  of  the  Dunkers,  made 
"leg  stockings  "  and  gloves.  Rev.  Andrew  Bur- 
naby,  who  was  in  Germantown  in  1759,  told  °f  a 
great  manufacture  of  stockings  at  that  date.  In 
1777  it  was  said  that  a  hundred  Germantown  stock- 
ing-weavers were  out  of  employment  through  the 
war.  Still  it  was  not  till  1850  that  patents  for 
knitting-machines  were  taken  out  there. 

Among  the  manufactures  of  the  province  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1698  were  druggets,  serges,  and 
coverlets;  and  among  th.e  registered  tradesmen  were 
dyers,  fullers,  comb-makers,  card-makers,  weavers, 
and  spinners.  The  Swedish  colony  as  early  as  1673 
had  the  wives  and  daughters  "  employing  them- 
selves in  spinning  wool  and  flax  and  many  in  weav- 
ing/'    The  fairs  instituted  by  William  Penn  for 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning 


191 


the  encouragement  of  domestic  manufactures  and 
trade  in  general,  which  were  fostered  by  Franklin 
and  continued  till  1775,  briskly  stimulated  wool  and 
flax  manufacture. 

In  1765  and  in  1775  rebellious  Philadelphians 
banded  together  with  promises  not  to  eat  or  suffer 
to  be  eaten  in  their  families  any  lamb  or  "  meat 
of  the  mutton  kind";  in  this  the  Philadelphia 
butchers,  patriotic  and  self-sacrificing,  all  joined.  A 
wool-factory  was  built  and  fitted  up  and  an  appeal 
made  to  the  women  to  save  the  state.  In  a  month 
four  hundred  wool-spinners  were  at  work.  But  the 
war  cut  off  the  supply  of  raw  material,  and  the 
manufacture  languished.  In  1790,  after  the  war, 
fifteen  hundred  sets  of  irons  for  spinning-wheels 
were  sold  from  one  shop,  and  mechanics  everywhere 
were  making  looms. 

New  Yorkers  were  not  behindhand  in  industry. 
Lord  Cornbury  wrote  home  to  England,  in  1705, 
that  he  "  had  seen  serge  made  upon  Long  Island 
that  any  man  might  wear ;  they  make  very  good 
linen  for  common  use  ;  as  for  Woollen  I  think  they 
have  brought  that  to  too  great  perfection." 

In  Cornbury's  phrase,  "  too  great  perfection," 
may  be  found  the  key  for  all  the  extraordinary  and 
apparently  stupid  prohibitions  and  restrictions  placed 
by  the  mother-country  on  colonial  wool  manufact- 


1^2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


ure.  The  growth  of  the  woollen  industry  in  any 
colony  was  regarded  at  once  by  England  with  jeal- 
ous eyes.  Wool  was  the  pet  industry  and  principal 
staple  of  Great  Britain  ;  and  well  it  might  be,  for 
until  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  English  garments 
from  head  to  foot  were  wholly  of  wool,  even  the 
shoes.  Wool  was  also  received  in  England  as  cur- 
rency. Thomas  Fuller  said,  "  The  wealth  of  our 
nation  is  folded  up  in  broadcloth."  Therefore,  the 
Crown,  aided  by  the  governors  of  the  provinces, 
sought  to  maintain  England's  monopoly  by  regu- 
lating and  reducing  the  culture  of  wool  in  America 
through  prohibiting  the  exportation  to  England  of 
any  American  wool  or  woollen  materials.  In  1699 
all  vessels  sailing  to  England  from  the  colonies  were 
prohibited  taking  on  board  any  "  Wool,  Woolfells, 
Shortlings,  Moslings,  Wool  Flocks,  Worsteds, 
Bays,  Bay  or  Woollen  Yarn,  Cloath,  Serge,  Kersey, 
Says,  Frizes,  Druggets,  Shalloons,  etc.  "  ;  and  an 
arbitrary  law  was  passed  prohibiting  the  transporta- 
tion of  home-made  woollens  from  one  American 
province  to  another.  These  laws  were  never  fully 
observed  and  never  checked  the  culture  and  manu- 
facture of  wool  in  this  country.  Hence  our  colo- 
nies were  spared  the  cruel  fate  by  which  England's 
same  policy  paralyzed  and  obliterated  in  a  few  years 
the  glorious  wool  industry  of  Ireland.  Luckily 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  193 


for  us,  it  is  further  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  than 
across  St.  George's  Channel. 

The  "all-wool  goods  a  yard  wide/1  which  we  so 
easily  purchase  to-day,  meant  to  the  colonial  dame 
or  daughter  the  work  of  many  weeks  and  months, 
from  the  time  when  the  fleeces  were  first  given  to 
her  deft  hands.  Fleeces  had  to  be  opened  with 
care,  and  have  all  pitched  or  tarred  locks,  dag- 
locks,  brands,  and  feltings  cut  out.  These  cut- 
tings were  not  wasted,  but  were  spun  into  coarse 
yarn.  The  white  locks  were  carefully  tossed  and 
separated  and  tied  into  net  bags  with  tallies  to 
be  dyed.  Another  homely  saying,  "  dyed  in  the 
wool/'  showed  a  process  of  much  skill.  Blue,  in 
all  shades,  was  the  favorite  color,  and  was  dyed 
with  indigo.  So  great  was  the  demand  for  this 
dye-stuff  that  indigo-pedlers  travelled  over  the 
country  selling  it. 

Madder,  cochineal,  and  logwood  dyed  beautiful 
reds.  The  bark  of  red  oak  or  hickory  made  very 
pretty  shades  of  brown  and  yellow.  Various  flowers 
growing  on  the  farm  could  be  used  for  dyes.  The 
flower  of  the  goldenrod,  when  pressed  of  its  juice, 
mixed  with  indigo,  and  added  to  alum,  made  a 
beautiful  green.  The  juice  of  the  pokeberry  boiled 
with  alum  made  crimson  dye,  and  a  violet  juice 
from  the  petals  of  the  iris,  or  "  flower-de-luce/' 

o 


194  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


that  blossomed  in  June  meadows,  gave  a  delicate 
light  purple  tinge  to  white  wool. 

The  bark  of  the  sassafras  was  used  for  dyeing 
yellow  or  orange  color,  and  the  flowers  and  leaves 
of  the  balsam  also.  Fustic  and  copperas  gave  yel- 
low dyes.  A  good  black  was  obtained  by  boiling 
woollen  cloth  with  a  quantity  of  the  leaves  of  the 
common  field-sorrel,  then  boiling  again  with  log- 
wood and  copperas. 

In  the  South  there  were  scores  of  flowers  and 
leaves  that  could  be  used  for  dyes.  During  the 
Revolutionary  War  one  enterprising  South  Caroli- 
nian got  a  guinea  a  pound  for  a  yellow  dye  he 
made  from  the  sweet-leaf  or  horse-laurel.  The 
leaves  and  berries  of  gall-berry  bush  made  a  good 
black  much  used  by  hatters  and  weavers.  The 
root  of  the  barberry  gave  wool  a  beautiful  yellow, 
as  did  the  leaves  of  the  devil's-bit.  The  petals  of 
Jerusalem  artichoke  and  St.-John's-wort  dyed  yel- 
low. Yellow  root  is  a  significant  name  and  reveals 
its  use :  oak,  walnut,  or  maple  bark  dyed  brown. 
Often  the  woven  cloth  was  dyed,  not  the  wool. 

The  next  process  was  carding;  the  wool  was  first 
greased  with  rape  oil  or  "  melted  swine's  grease," 
which  had  to  be  thoroughly  worked  in  ;  about  three 
pounds  of  grease  were  put  into  ten  pounds  of  wool. 
Wool-cards  were  rectangular  pieces  of  thin  board, 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  195 


with  a  simple  handle  on  the  back  or  at  the  side  ;  to 
this  board  was  fastened  a  smaller  rectangle  of  strong 
leather,  set  thick  with  slightly  bent  wire  teeth,  like 
a  coarse  brush.    The  carder  took  one  card  with  her 


Carding  Wool 


left  hand,  and  resting  it  on  her  knee,  drew  a  tuft  of 
wool  across  it  several  times,  until  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  fibre  had  been  caught  upon  the  wire  teeth.  She 
then  drew  the  second  wool-card,  which  had  to  be 
warmed,  across  the  first  several  times,  until  the 


196  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


fibres  were  brushed  parallel  by  all  these  "  tum- 
mings."  Then  by  a  deft  and  catchy  motion  the 
wool  was  rolled  or  carded  into  small  fleecy  rolls 
which  were  then  ready  for  spinning. 

Wool-combs  were  shaped  like  the  letter  T,  with 
about  thirty  long  steel  teeth  from  ten  to  eighteen 
inches  long  set  at  right  angles  with  the  top  of  the  T. 
The  wool  was  carefully  placed  on  one  comb,  and 
with  careful  strokes  the  other  comb  laid  the  long 
staple  smooth  for  hard-twisted  spinning.  It  was 
tedious  and  slow  work,  and  a  more  skilful  opera- 
tion than  carding ;  and  the  combs  had  to  be  kept 
constantly  heated ;  but  no  machine-combing  ever 
equalled  hand-combing.  There  was  a  good  deal 
of  waste  in  this  combing,  that  is,  large  clumps  of 
tangled  wool  called  noil  were  combed  out.  They 
were  not  really  wasted,  we  may  be  sure,  by  our 
frugal  ancestors,  but  were  spun  into  coarse  yarn. 

An  old  author  says :  "  The  action  of  spinning 
must  be  learned  by  practice,  not  by  relation.,,  Sung 
by  the  poets,  the  grace  and  beauty  of  the  occupation 
has  ever  shared  praise  with  its  utility. 

Wool-spinning  was  truly  one  of  the  most  flexible 
and  alert  series  of  movements  in  the  world,  and 
to  its  varied  and  graceful  poises  our  grandmothers 
may  owe  part  of  the  dignity  of  carriage  that  was  so 
characteristic  of  them.    The  spinner  stood  slightly 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  197 


Wool-spinning 

leaning  forward,  lightly  poised  on  the  ball  of  the 
left  foot;  with  her  left  hand  she  picked  up  from 
the  platform  of  the  wheel  a  long  slender  roll  of  the 
soft  carded  wool  about  as  large  round  as  the  little 
finger,  and  deftly  wound  the  end  of  the  fibres  on 
the  point  of  the  spindle.    She  then  gave  a  gentle 


198  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


motion  to  the  wheel  with  a  wooden  peg  held  in  her 
right  hand,  and  seized  with  the  left  the  roll  at  ex- 
actly the  right  distance  from  the  spindle  to  allow 
for  one  "  drawing."  Then  the  hum  of  the  wheel 
rose  to  a  sound  like  the  echo  of  wind ;  she  stepped 
backward  quickly,  one,  two,  three  steps,  holding 
high  the  long  yarn  as  it  twisted  and  quivered. 
Suddenly  she  glided  forward  with  even,  graceful 
stride  and  let  the  yarn  wind  on  the  swift  spindle. 
Another  pinch  of  the  wool-roll,  a  new  turn  of  the 
wheel,  and  da  capo. 

The  wooden  peg  held  by  the  spinner  deserves 
a  short  description ;  it  served  the  purpose  of  an 
elongated  finger,  and  was  called  a  driver,  wheel-peg, 
etc.  It  was  about  nine  inches  long,  an  inch  or  so 
in  diameter ;  and  at  about  an  inch  from  the  end  was 
slightly  grooved  in  order  that  it  might  surely  catch 
the  spoke  and  thus  propel  the  wheel. 

It  was  a  good  day's  work  for  a  quick,  active  spin- 
ner to  spin  six  skeins  of  yarn  a  day.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  to  do  that  with  her  quick  backward  and 
forward  steps  she  walked  over  twenty  miles. 

The  yarn  might  be  wound  directly  upon  the 
wooden  spindle  as  it  was  spun,  or  at  the  end  of  the 
spindle  might  be  placed  a  spool  or  broach  which 
twisted  with  the  revolving  spindle,  and  held  the 
new-spun  yarn.    This  broach  was  usually  simply  a 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  199 

stiff  roll  of  paper,  a  corn-cob,  or  a  roll  of  corn-husk. 
When  the  ball  of  yarn  was  as  large  as  the  broach 


Triple  Reel 


would  hold,  the  spinner  placed  wooden  pegs  in 
certain  holes  in  the  spokes  of  her  spinning-wheel 


200  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


and  tied  the  end  of  the  yarn  to  one  peg.  Then  she 
took  off  the  belt  of  her  wheel  and  whirred  the  big 
wheel  swiftly  round,  thus  winding  the  yarn  on  the 
pegs  into  hanks  or  clews  two  yards  in  circumference, 
which  were  afterwards  tied  with  a  loop  of  yarn  into 
knots  of  forty  threads ;  while  seven  of  these  knots 
made  a  skein.  The  clock-reel  was  used  for  winding 
yarn,  also  a  triple  reel. 

The  yarn  might  be  wound  from  the  spindle  into 
skeins  in  another  way,  —  by  using  a  hand-reel,  an 
implement  which  really  did  exist  in  every  farm- 
house, though  the  dictionaries  are  ignorant  of  it, 
as  they  are  of  its  universal  folk-name,  niddy-noddy. 
This  is  fortunately  preserved  in  an  every-day  do- 
mestic riddle :  — 

u  Niddy-noddy,  niddy-noddy, 
Two  heads  and  one  body." 

The  three  pieces  of  these  niddy-noddys  were  set 
together  at  curious  angles,  and  are  here  shown  rather 
than  described  in  words.  Holding  the  reel  in  the 
left  hand  by  seizing  the  central  "  body  "  or  rod,  the 
yarn  was  wound  from  end  to  end  of  the  reel,  by  an 
odd,  waving,  wobbling  motion,  into  knots  and  skeins 
of  the  same  size  as  by  the  first  process  described. 
One  of  these  niddy-noddys  was  owned  by  Nabby 
Marshall  of  Deerfield,  who  lived  to  be  one  hundred 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  201 


"  Niddy-noddy,  two  heads  and  one  body" 


and  four  years  old.  The  other  was  brought  from 
Ireland  in  1733  by  Hugh  Maxwell,  father  of  the 
Revolutionary  patriot  Colone  1  M  axwell.  As  it 
was  at  a  time  of  English  prohibitions  and  restric- 
tions of  American  manufactures,  this  niddy-noddy, 
as  an  accessory  and  promoter  of  colonial  wool  man- 
ufacture, was  smuggled  into  the  country. 

Sometimes  the  woollen  yarn  was  spun  twice ;  es- 
pecially if  a  close,  hard-twisted  thread  was  desired, 
to  be  woven  into  a  stiff,  wiry  cloth.  When  there 
were  two,  the  first  spinning  was  called  a  roving. 
The  single  spinning  was  usually  deemed  sufficient 
to  furnish  yarn  for  knitting,  where  softness  and 
warmth  were  the  desired  requisites. 


202  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

It  was  the  pride  of  a  good  spinster  to  spin  thfe 
finest  yarn,  and  one  Mistress  Mary  Prigge  spun  a 
pound  of  wool  into  fifty  hanks  of  eighty-four  thou- 
sand yards ;  in  all,  nearly  forty-eight  miles.  If  the 
yarn  was  to  be  knitted,  it  had  to  be  washed  and 
cleansed.  The  wife  of  Colonel  John  May,  a 
prominent  man  in  Boston,  wrote  in  her  diary  for 
one  day : — 

"  A  large  kettle  of  yarn  to  attend  upon.  Lucretia  and 
self  rinse,  scour  through  many  waters,  get  out,  dry,  attend 
to,  bring  in,  do  up  and  sort  no  score  of  yarn;  this  with 
baking  and  ironing.    Then  went  to  hackling  flax." 

It  should  be  remembered  that  all  those  bleach- 
ing processes,  the  wringing  out  and  rinsing  in  vari- 
ous waters,  were  far  more  wearisome  then  than  they 
would  be  to-day,  for  the  water  had  to  be  carried  labo- 
riously in  pails  and  buckets,  and  drawn  with  pumps 
and  well-sweeps;  there  were  no  pipes  and  conduits. 
Happy  the  household  that  had  a  running  brook 
near  the  kitchen  door. 

Of  course  all  these  operations  and  manipulations 
usually  occupied  many  weeks  and  months,  but  they 
could  be  accomplished  in  a  much  shorter  time. 
When  President  Nott  of  Union  College,  and  his 
brother  Samuel,  the  famous  preacher,  were  boys  on 
a  stony  farm  in  Connecticut,  one  of  the  brothers 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  203 


needed  a  new  suit  of  clothes,  and  as  the  father  was 
sick  there  was  neither  money  nor  wool  in  the  house. 
The  mother  sheared  some  half-grown  fleece  from 
her  sheep,  and  in  less  than  a  week  the  boy  wore  it 
as  clothing.  The  shivering  and  generous  sheep 
were  protected  by  wrappings  of  braided  straw. 
During  the  Revolution,  it  is  said  that  in  a  day  and 
a  night  a  mother  and  her  daughters  in  Townsend, 
Massachusetts,  sheared  a  black  and  a  white  sheep, 
carded  from  the  fleece  a  gray  wool,  spun,  wove,  cut 
and  made  a  suit  of  clothes  for  a  boy  to  wear  off  to 
fight  for  liberty. 

The  wool  industry  easily  furnished  home  occupa- 
tion to  an  entire  family.  Often  by  the  bright  fire- 
light in  the  early  evening  every  member  of  the 
household  might  be  seen  at  work  on  the  various 
stages  of  wool  manufacture  or  some  of  its  necessary 
adjuncts,  and  varied  and  cheerful  industrial  sounds 
fill  the  room.  The  old  grandmother,  at  light  and 
easy  work,  is  carding  the  wool  into  fleecy  rolls, 
seated  next  the  fire;  for,  as  the  ballad  says,  "she 
was  old  and  saw  right  dimly."  The  mother,  step- 
ping as  lightly  as  one  of  her  girls,  spins  the  rolls 
into  woollen  yarn  on  the  great  wheel.  The  oldest 
daughter  sits  at  the  clock-reel,  whose  continuous 
buzz  and  occasional  click  mingles  with  the  humming 
rise  and  fall  of  the  wool-wheel,  and  the  irritating 


204  Home.  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


scratch,  scratch,  of  the  cards.  A  little  girl  at  a  small 
wheel  is  filling  quills  with  woollen  yarn  for  the  loom, 
not  a  skilled  work;  the  irregular  sound  shows  her 
intermittent  industry.  The  father  is  setting  fresh 
teeth  in  a  wool-card,  while  the  boys  are  whittling 
hand-reels  and  loom-spools. 


Wool-cards 


One  of  the  household  implements  used  in  wool 
manufacture,  the  wool-card,  deserves  a  short  special 
history  as  well  as  a  description.  In  early  days  the 
leather  back  of  the  wool-card  was  pierced  with  an 
awl  by  hand  ;  the  wire  teeth  were  cut  off  from  a 
length  of  wire,  were  slightly  bent,  and  set  and 
clinched  one  by  one.  These  cards  were  laboriously 
made  by  many  persons  at  home,  for  their  household 
use.    As  early  as  1667  wire  was  made  in  Massachu- 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning 


setts;  and  its  chief  use  was  for  wool-cards.  By 
Revolutionary  times  it  was  realized  that  the  use  of 
wool-cards  was  almost  the  mainspring  of  the  wool 
industry,  and  £100  bounty  was  offered  by  Massa- 
chusetts for  card-wire  made  in  the  state  from  iron 
mined  in  what  they  called  then  the  "  United  Ameri- 
can States/'  In  1784  a  machine  was  invented  by 
an  American  which  would  cut  and  bend  thirty-six 
thousand  wire  teeth  an  hour.  Another  machine 
pierced  the  leather  backs.  This  gave  a  new  em- 
ployment to  women  and  children  at  home  and  some 
spending-money.  They  would  get  boxes  of  the 
bent  wire  teeth  and  bundles  of  the  leather  backs 
from  the  factories  and  would  set  the  teeth  in  the 
backs  while  sitting  around  the  open  fire  in  the  even- 
ing. They  did  this  work,  too,  while  visiting  — 
spending  an  afternoon  ;  and  it  was  an  unconscious 
and  diverting  work  like  knitting;  scholars  set  wool- 
cards  while  studying,  and  schoolmistresses  while 
teaching.  This  method  of  manufacture  was  super- 
seded fifteen  years  later  by  a  machine  invented  by 
Amos  Whittemore,  which  held,  cut,  and  pierced  the 
leather,  drew  the  wire  from  a  reel,  cut  and  bent  a 
looped  tooth,  set  it,  bent  it,  fastened  the  leather  on 
the  back,  and  speedily  turned  out  a  fully  made  card. 
John  Randolph  said  this  machine  had  everything  but 
an  immortal  soul.   .By  this  time  spinning  and  weav- 


206  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


ing  machinery  began  to  crowd  out  home  work,  and 
the  machine-made  cards  were  needed  to  keep  up  with 
the  increased  demand.  At  last  machines  crowded 
into  every  department  of  cloth  manufacture  ;  and 
after  carding-machines  were  invented  in  England 
—  great  rollers  set  with  card-teeth  —  they  were  set 
up  in  many  mills  throughout  the  United  States. 

Families  soon  sent  all  their  wool  to  these  mills 
to  be  carded  even  when  it  was  spun  and  woven  at 
home.  It  was  sent  rolled  up  in  a  homespun  sheet 
or  blanket  pinned  with  thorns  ;  and  the  carded  rolls 
ready  for  spinning  were  brought  home  in  the  same 
way,  and  made  a  still  bigger  bundle  which  was  light 
in  weight  for  its  size.  Sometimes  a  red-cheeked 
farmer's  lass  would  be  seen  riding  home  from  the 
carding-mill,  through  New  England  woods  or  along 
New  England  lanes,  with  a  bundle  of  carded  wool 
towering  up  behind  her  bigger  than  her  horse. 

Of  the  use  and  manufacture  of  cotton  I  will 
speak  very  shortly.  Our  greatest,  cheapest,  most 
indispensable  fibre  is  also  our  latest  one.  It  never 
formed  one  of  the  homespun  industries  of  the  colo- 
nies ;  in  fact,  it  was  never  an  article  of  extended 
domestic  manufacture. 

A  little  cotton  was  always  used  in  early  days  for 
stuffing  bedquilts,  petticoats,  warriors'  armor,  and 
similar  purposes.    It  was  bought  by  the  pound, 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  207 


East  India  cotton,  in  small  quantities ;  the  seeds 
were  picked  out  one  by  one,  by  hand  ;  it  was  carded 
on  wool-cards,  and  spun  into  a  rather  intractable  yarn 
which  was  used  as  warp  for  linsey-woolsey  and  rag 
carpets.  Even  in  England  no  cotton  weft,  no  all- 
cotton  fabrics,  were  made  till  after  1760,  till  Har- 
greave's  time.  Sometimes  a  twisted  yarn  was  made 
of  one  thread  of  cotton  and  one  of  wool  which  was 
knit  into  durable  stockings.  Cotton  sewing-thread 
was  unknown  in  England.  Pawtucket  women 
named  Wilkinson  made  the  first  cotton  thread  on 
their  home  spinning-wheels  in  1792. 

Cotton  was  planted  in  America,  Bancroft  says,  in 
1 62 1,  but  MacMaster  asserts  it  was  never  seen 
growing  here  till  after  the  Revolution  save  as  a 
garden  ornament  with  garden  flowers.  This  asser- 
tion seems  oversweeping  when  Jefferson  could  write 
in  a  letter  in  1786  :  — 

"  The  four  southernmost  States  make  a  great  deal  of 
cotton.  Their  poor  are  almost  entirely  clothed  with  it  in 
winter  and  summer.  In  winter  they  wear  shirts  of  it  and 
outer  clothing  of  cotton  and  wool  mixed.  In  summer 
their  shirts  are  linen,  but  the  outer  clothing  cotton.  The 
dress  of  the  women  is  almost  entirely  of  cotton,  manu- 
factured by  themselves,  except  the  richer  class,  and  even 
many  of  these  wear  a  great  deal  of  homespun  cotton.  It 
is  as  well  manufactured  as  the  calicoes  of  Europe.'' 


2o8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Still  cotton  was  certainly  not  a  staple  of  conse- 
quence. We  were  the  last  to  enter  the  list  of  cotton- 
producing  countries  and  we  have  surpassed  them  all. 

The  difficulty  of  removing  the  seeds  from  the 
staple  practically  thrust  cotton  out  of  common  use. 
In  India  a  primitive  and  cumbersome  set  of  rollers 
called  a  churka  partially  cleaned  India  cotton.  A 
Yankee  schoolmaster,  Eli  Whitney,  set  King  Cot- 
ton on  a  throne  by  his  invention  of  the  cotton-gin 
in  1792.  This  comparatively  simple  but  inesti- 
mable invention  completely  revolutionized  cloth 
manufacture  in  England  and  America.  It  also 
changed  general  commerce,  industrial  development, 
and  the  social  and  economic  order  of  things,  for  it 
gave  new  occupations  and  offered  new  modes  of  life 
to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons.  It  entirely 
changed  and  cheapened  our  dress,  and  altered  rural 
life  both  in  the  North  and  South. 

A  man  could,  by  hand-picking,  clean  only  about 
a  pound  of  cotton  a  day.  The  cotton-gin  cleaned 
as  much  in  a  day  as  had  taken  the  hand-picker  a 
year  to  accomplish.  Cotton  was  at  once  planted 
in  vast  amounts  ;  but  it  certainly  was  not  plentiful 
till  then.  Whitney  had  never  seen  cotton  nor 
cotton  seed  when  he  began  to  plan  his  invention  ; 
nor  did  he,  even  in  Savannah,  find  cotton  to  experi- 
ment with  until  after  considerable  search. 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  209 

After  the  universal  manufacture  and  use  of  the 
cotton-gin,  negro  women  wove  cotton  in  Southern 
houses,  sometimes  spinning  their  own  cotton  thread  ; 
more  frequently  buying  it  mill-spun.  But,  after  all, 
this  was  in  too  small  amounts  to  be  of  importance  ; 
it  needed  the  spinning-jennies  and  power-looms 
of  vast  mills  to  use  up  the  profuse  supply  afforded 
by  the  gin. 

A  very  interesting  account  of  the  domestic  manu- 
facture of  cotton  in  Tennessee  about  the  year  1850 
was  written  for  me  by  Mrs.  James  Stuart  Pilcher, 
State  Regent  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  in  Tennessee.  A  portion  of  her  pleas- 
ant story  reads  :  — 

"  There  were  two  looms  in  the  loom-room,  and  two 
negro  women  were  kept  busy  all  the  time  weaving;  there 
were  eight  or  ten  others  who  did  nothing  but  spin  cotton 
and  woollen  thread ;  others  spooled  and  reeled  it  into  hanks. 
The  spinning  was  all  done  on  the  large  wheel,  from  the 
raw  cotton;  a  corn-shuck  was  wrapped  tightly  around  the 
steel  spindle,  then  the  thread  was  run  and  spun  on  this 
shuck  until  it  was  full;  then  these  were  reeled  off  into 
hanks  of  thread,  then  spooled  on  to  corn-cobs  with  holes 
burned  through  them.  These  were  placed  in  an  upright 
frame,  with  long  slender  rods  of  hickory  wood  something 
like  a  ramrod  run  through  them.  The  frame  held  about 
one  hundred  of  these  cob-spools;  the  end  of  the  cotton 
p 


2IO 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


thread  from  each  spool  was  gathered  up  by  an  experienced 
warper  who  carried  all  the  threads  back  and  forth  on  the 
large  warping-bars ;  this  was  a  difficult  task;  only  the 
brightest  negro  women  were  warpers.  The  thread  had 
been  dyed  before  spooling  and  the  vari-colored  cob-spools 
could  be  arranged  to  make  stripes  lengthwise  of  the  cloth; 
and  the  hanks  had  also  been  dipped  in  a  boiling-hot  sizing 
made  of  meal  and  water.  The  warp-threads  were  carefully 
taken  from  the  bars  and  rolled  upon  the  wooden  beam  of 
the  loom,  the  ends  passed  through  the  sley  and  tied.  The 
weaver  then  began  her  work.  The  thread  for  the  filling 
(called  the  woof  by  the  negroes)  was  reeled  from  the  hank 
on  the  winding-blades,  upon  small  canes  about  four  inches 
long  which,  when  full,  were  placed  in  the  wooden  shuttles. 
These  women  spun  and  wove  all  the  clothing  worn  by  the 
negroes  on  the  plantation;  cotton  cloth  for  women  and 
men  in  the  summer  time;  and  jeans  for  the  men;  linsey- 
woolsey  for  the  women  and  children  for  winter.  All 
were  well  clothed.  The  women  taught  us  to  spin,  but  the 
weavers  were  cross  and  would  not  let  us  touch  the  loom, 
for  they  said  we  broke  the  threads  in  the  warp.  My  grand- 
mother never  interfered  with  them  when  they  were  careful 
in  their  work.  We  would  say,  c  Please  make  Aunt  Rhody 
let  me  weave !  '  She  answered,  c  No,  she  is  managing  the 
loom;  if  she  is  willing,  very  well;  if  not,  you  must  not 
worry  her.'  We  thought  it  great  fun  to  try  to  weave,  but 
generally  had  to  pay  Aunt  Rhody  for  our  meddling  by  giv- 
ing her  cake,  ribbons,  or  candy." 


Wool  Culture  and  Spinning  21 1 


The  colonists  were  constantly  trying  to  find  new 
materials  for  spinning,  and  also  used  many  make- 
shifts. Parkman,  in  his  Old  Regime,  tells  that  in 
the  year  1704,  when  a  ship  was  lost  that  was  to 
bring  cloth  and  wool  to  Quebec,  a  Madame  de 
Repentigny,  one  of  the  aristocrats  of  the  French- 
Canadian  colony,  spun  and  wove  coarse  blankets  of 
nettle  and  linden  bark.  Similar  experiments  were 
made  by  the  English  colonists.  Coarse  thread  was 
spun  out  of  nettle-fibre  by  pioneers  in  western  New 
York.  Levi  Beardsley,  in  his  Reminiscences,  tells 
of  his  mother  at  the  close  of  the  last  century,  in  her 
frontier  home  at  Richfield  Springs,  weaving  bags 
and  coarse  garments  from  the  nettles  which  grew  so 
rankly  everywhere  in  that  vicinity.  Deer  hair  and 
even  cow's  hair  was  collected  from  the  tanners,  spun 
with  some  wool,  and  woven  into  a  sort  of  felted 
blanket. 

Silk-grass,  a  much-vaunted  product,  was  sent 
back  to  England  on  the  first  ships  and  was  every- 
where being  experimented  with.  Coarse  wicking 
was  spun  from  the  down  of  the  milkweed  —  an  airy, 
feathery  material  that  always  looks  as  if  it  ought  to 
be  put  to  many  uses,  yet  never  has  seemed  of  much 
account  in  any  trial  that  has  been  made  of  it. 


CHAPTER  X 

HAND  WEAVING 

ANY  one  who  passed  through  a  New  England 
village  on  a  week  day  a  century  ago,  or  rode 
"  up  to  the  door  of  a  Pennsylvania  or  Virginia 
house,  would  probably  be  greeted  with  a  heavy 
thwack-thwack  from  within  doors,  a  regular  sound 
which  would  readily  be  recognized  by  every  one  at 
that  time  as  proceeding  from  weaving  on  a  hand- 
loom.  The  presence  of  these  looms  was,  perhaps, 
not  so  universal  in  every  house  as  that  of  their 
homespun  companions,  the  great  and  little  wheels, 
for  they  required  more  room  ;  but  they  were  found 
in  every  house  of  any  considerable  size,  and  in 
many  also  where  they  seemed  to  fill  half  the  build- 
ing. Many  households  had  a  loom-room,  usually 
in  an  ell  part  of  the  house  ;  others  used  an  attic  or 
a  shed-loft  as  a  weaving-room.  Every  farmer's 
daughter  knew  how  to  weave  as  well  as  to  spin,  yet 
it  was  not  recognized  as  wholly  woman's  work  as 
was  spinning  ;  for  there  was  a  trade  of  hand-weav- 
ing for  men,  to  which  they  were  apprenticed.  Every 

212 


Hand-Weaving 


213 


town  had  professional  weavers.  They  were  a  univer- 
sally respected  class,  and  became  the  ancestors  of 
many  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential  citizens 
to-day.  They  took  in  yarn  and  thread  to  weave  on 
their  looms  at  their  own  homes  at  so  much  a  vard : 
wove  their  own  yarn  into  stuffs  to  sell ;  had  appren- 
tices to  their  trade;  and  also  went  out  working  by 
the  day  at  their  neighbors'  houses,  sometimes  carry- 
ing their  looms  many  miles  with  them. 

Weavers  were  a  universally  popular  element  of 
the  community.  The  travelling  weaver  was,  like 
all  other  itinerant  tradesmen  of  the  day,  a  welcome 
newsmonger ;  and  the  weaver  who  took  in  weaving 
was  often  a  stationary  gossip,  and  gathered  inquiring 
groups  in  his  loom-room  ;  even  children  loved  to 
go  to  his  door  to  beg  for  bits  of  colored  yarn  — 
thrums  —  which  they  used  in  their  play,  and  also 
tightly  braided  to  wear  as  shoestrings,  hair-laces,  etc. 

The  hand-loom  used  in  the  colonies,  and  occasion- 
ally still  run  in  country  towns  to-day,  is  an  historic 
machine,  one  of  great  antiquity  and  dignity.  It  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  absolute  bequest  of  past  centuries 
which  we  have  had,  unchanged,  in  domestic  use  till 
the  present  time.  You  may  see  a  loom  like  the  Yan- 
kee one  shown  here  in  Giotto's  famous  fresco  in  the 
Campanile,  painted  in  1335  5  another,  still  the  same, 
in  Hogarth's  Idle  Apprentice \  painted  just  four  hun- 


214  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


dred  years  later.  Many  tribes  and  nations  have 
hand-looms  resembling  our  own  ;  but  these  are 
exactly  like  it.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  and 
women  of  the  generations  of  these  seven  centuries 
since  Giotto's  day  have  woven  on  just  such  looms 
as  our  grandparents  had  in  their  homes. 

This  loom  consists  of  a  frame  of  four  square  tim- 
ber posts,  about  seven  feet  high,  set  about  as  far 
apart  as  the  posts  of  a  tall  four-post  bedstead,  and 
connected  at  top  and  bottom  by  portions  of  a  frame. 
From  post  to  post  across  one  end,  which  may  be 
called  the  back  part  of  the  loom,  is  the  yarn-beam, 
about  six  inches  in  diameter.  Upon  it  are  wound 
the  warp-threads,  which  stretch  in  close  parallels 
from  it  to  the  cloth-beam  at  the  front  of  the  loom. 
The  cloth-beam  is  about  ten  inches  in  diameter,  and 
the  cloth  is  wound  as  the  weaving  proceeds. 

The  yarn-beam  or  yarn-roll  or  warp-beam  was 
ever  a  very  important  part  of  the  loom.  It  should 
be  made  of  close-grained,  well-seasoned  wood.  The 
iron  axle  should  be  driven  in  before  the  beam  is 
turned.  If  the  beam  is  ill-turned  and  irregular  in 
shape,  no  even,  perfect  woof  can  come  from  it.  The 
slightest  variation  in  its  dimensions  makes  the  warp 
run  off  unevenly,  and  the  web  never  "  sets  "  well, 
but  has  some  loose  threads. 

We  have  seen  the  homespun  yarn,  whether  linen 


Hand- Weaving 


215 


or  woollen,  left  in  carefully  knotted  skeins  after  being 
spun  and  cleaned,  bleached,  or,  dyed.    To  prepare 


Swifts 


it  for  use  on  the  loom  a  skein  is  placed  on  the  swift, 
an  ingenious  machine,  a  revolving  cylindrical  frame 


2i6  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


made  of  strips  of  wood  arranged  on  the  principle  of 
the  lazy-tongs  so  the  size  can  be  increased  or  dimin- 
ished at  pleasure,  and  thus  take  on  and  hold  firmly 
any  sized  skein  of  yarn.  This  cylinder  is  sup- 
ported on  a  centre  shaft  that  revolves  in  a  socket, 
and  may  be  set  in  a  heavy  block  on  the  floor  or 
fastened  to  a  table  or  chair.  A  lightly  made,  carved 
swift  was  a  frequent  lover's  gift.  I  have  a  beautiful 
one  of  whale-ivory,  mother-of-pearl,  and  fine  white 
bone  which  was  made  on  a  three  years'  whaling 
voyage  by  a  Nantucket  sea-captain  as  a  gift  to  his 
waiting  bride;  it  has  over  two  hundred  strips  of 
fine  white  carved  bone.  Both  quills  for  the  weft 
and  spools  for  the  warp  may  be  wound  from 
the  swift  by  a  quilling-wheel,  small  wheels  of  various 
shapes,  some  being  like  a  flax-wheel,  but  more 
simple  in  construction.  The  quill  or  bobbin  is  a 
small  reed  or  quill,  pierced  from  end  to  end,  and 
when  wound  is  set  in  the  recess  of  the  shuttle. 

When  the  piece  is  to  be  set,  a  large  number  of 
shuttles  and  spools  are  filled  in  advance.  The  full 
spools  are  then  placed  in  a  row  one  above  the  other 
in  a  spool-holder,  sometimes  called  a  skarne  or 
scarne.  As  I  have  not  found  this  word  in  any 
dictionary,  ancient  or  modern,  its  correct  spelling  is 
unknown.  Sylvester  Judd,  in  his  Margaret,  spells 
it  skan.     Skean  and  skayn  have  also  been  seen. 


Hand-W  eaving 


217 


Skarne  with  Loom  Spools 


Though  ignored  by  lexicographers,  it  was  an  article 
and  word  in  established  and  universal  use  in  the 
colonies.  I  have  seen  it  in  newspaper  advertise- 
ments of  weavers'  materials,  and  in  inventories  of 
weavers'  estates,  spelled  ad  libitum ;  and  elderly 
country  folk,  both  in  the  North  and  South,  who 
remember  old-time  weaving,  know  it  to-day. 

It  seems  to  me  impossible  to  explain  clearly  in 
words,  though  it  is  simple  enough  in  execution,  the 
laying  of  the  piece,  the  orderly  placing  the  warp  on 
the  warp-beam.  The  warping-bars  are  entirely  de- 
tached from  the  loom,  are  an  accessory,  not  a  part 
of  it.  They  are  two  upright  bars  of  wood,  each 
holding  a  number  of  wooden  pins  set  at  right  angles 


21 8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


to  the  bars,  and  held  together  by  crosspieces.  Let 
forty  full  spools  be  placed  in  the  skarne,  one  above 
the  other.  The  free  ends  of  threads  from  the  spools 
are  gathered  in  the  hand,  and  fastened  to  a  pin  at 
the  top  of  the  warping-bars.  The  group  of  threads 
then  are  carried  from  side  to  side  of  the  bars,  passing 
around  a  pin  on  one  bar,  then  around  a  pin  on  the 
opposite  bar,  to  the  extreme  end ;  then  back  again 
in  the  same  way,  the  spools  revolving  on  wires  and 
freely  playing  out  the  warp-threads,  till  a  sufficient 
length  of  threads  are  stretched  on  the  bars.  Weav- 
ers of  olden  days  could  calculate  exactly  and  skil- 
fully the  length  of  the  threads  thus  wound.  You 
take  off*  twenty  yards  of  threads  if  you  want  to 
weave  twenty  yards  of  cloth.  Forty  warp-threads 
make  what  was  called  a  bout  or  section.  A  warp  of 
two  hundred  threads  was  designated  as  a  warp  of 
five  bouts,  and  the  bars  had  to  be  filled  five  times 
to  set  it  unless  a  larger  skarne  with  more  spools  was 
used.  From  the  warping-bars  these  bouts  are  care- 
fully wound  on  the  warp-beam. 

Without  attempting  to  explain  farther,  let  us  con- 
sider the  yarn-beam  neatly  wound  with  these  warp- 
threads  and  set  in  the  loom  —  that  the  "warping" 
and  "beaming"  are  finished.  The  "drawing"  or 
"  entering "  comes  next ;  the  end  of  each  warp- 
thread  in  regular  order  is  "thumbed"  or  drawn  in 


Hand- Weaving 


219 


with  a  warping-needle  through  the  eye  or  "  mail " 
of  the  harness,  or  heddle. 

The  heddle  is  a  row  of  twines,  cords,  or  wires 
called  leashes,  which  are  stretched  vertically  between 
two  horizontal  bars  or  rods,  placed  about  a  foot 
apart.  One  rod  is  suspended  by  a  pulley  at  the  top 
of  the  loom  ;  and  to  the  lower  rod  is  hitched  the 
foot-treadle.  In  the  middle  of  each  length  of  twine 
or  wire  is  the  loop  or  eye,  through  which  a  warp- 
thread  is  passed.  In  ordinary  weaving  there  are 
two  heddles,  each  fastened  to  a  foot-treadle. 

There  is  a  removable  loom  attachment  which 
when  first  shown  to  me  was  called  a  raddle.  It  is 
not  necessary  in  weaving,  but  a  convenience  and 
help  in  preparing  to  weave.  It  is  a  wooden  bar 
with  a  row  of  closely  set,  fine,  wooden  pegs.  This 
is  placed  in  the  loom,  and  used  only  during  the 
setting  of  the  warp  to  keep  the  warp  of  proper 
width  ;  the  pegs  keep  the  bouts  or  sections  of  the 
warp  disentangled  during  the  "thumbing  in"  of 
the  threads  through  the  heddle-eyes.  This  attach- 
ment is  also  called  a  ravel  or  raivel ;  and  folk-names 
for  it  (not  in  the  dictionary)  were  wrathe  and  rake ; 
the  latter  a  very  good  descriptive  title. 

The  warp-threads  next  are  drawn  through  the 
interspaces  between  two  dents  or  strips  of  the  sley 
or  reed.    This  is  done  with  a  wire  hook  called  a 


220  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


sley-hook  or  reed-hook.  Two  warp- 
threads  are  drawn  in  each  space. 

The  sley  or  reed  is  composed  of  a  row 
of  short  and  very  thin  parallel  strips  of 
cane  or  metal,  somewhat  like  comb-teeth, 
called  dents,  fixed  at  both  ends  closely  in 
two  long,  strong,  parallel  bars  of  wood  set 
two  or  three  or  even  four  inches  apart. 
There  may  be  fifty  or  sixty  of  these  dents 
to  one  inch,  for  weaving  very  fine  linen  ; 
usually  there  are  about  twenty,  which 
gives  a  "bier" — a  counting  out  of  forty 
warp-threads  to  each  inch.  Sleys  were 
numbered  according  to  the  number  of  biers 
they  held.  The  number  of  dents  to  an 
inch  determined  the  "  set  of  the  web,"  the 
fineness  of  the  piece.  This  reed  is  placed 
in  a  groove  on  the  lower  edge  of  a  heavy 
batten  (or  lay  or  lathe).  This  batten 
hangs  by  two  swords  or  side  bars  and 
swings  from  an  axle  or  "  rocking  tree  "  at 
the  top  of  the  loom.  As  the  heavy  batten 
swings  on  its  axle,  the  reed  forces  with  a 
sharp  blow  every  newly  placed  thread  of 
the  weft  into  its  proper  place  close  to  the 
previously  woven  part  of  the  texture. 
This  is  the  heavy  thwacking  sound  heard 
in  hand-weaving. 


Hand- Weaving 


221 


On  the  accurate  poise  of  the  batten  depends 
largely  the  evenness  of  the  completed  woof.  If 
the  material  is  heavy,  the  batten  should  be  swung 
high,  thus  having  a  good  sweep  and  much  force  in 
its  blow.  The  batten  should  be  so  poised  as  to 
swing  back  itself  into  place  after  each  blow. 

The  weaver,  with  foot  on  treadle,  sits  on  a  nar- 
row, high  bench,  which  is  fastened  from  post  to 
post  of  the  loom.  James  Maxwell,  the  weaver- 
poet,  wrote  under  his  portrait  in  his  Weaver  s 
Meditations^  printed  in  1756: — - 

"  Lo  !  here  'twixt  Heaven  and  Earth  I  swing, 
And  whilst  the  Shuttle  swiftly  flies, 
With  cheerful  heart  I  work  and  sing 
And  envy  none  beneath  the  skies." 

There  are  three  motions  in  hand-weaving.  First : 
by  the  action  of  one  foot-treadle  one  harness  or 
heddle,  holding  every  alternate  warp-thread,  is  de- 
pressed from  the  level  of  the  entire  expanse  of 
warp-threads. 

The  separation  of  the  warp-threads  by  this  de- 
pression of  one  harness  is  called  a  shed.  Some 
elaborate  patterns  have  six  harnesses.  In  such  a 
piece  there  are  ten  different  sheds,  or  combinations 
of  openings  of  the  warp-threads.  In  a  four-harness 
piece  there  are  six  different  sheds. 


222 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Room  is  made  by  this  shed  for  the  shuttle,  which, 
by  the  second  motion,  is  thrown  from  one  side  of 
the  loom  to  the  other  by  the  weaver's  hand,  and 
thus  goes  over  every  alternate  thread.  The  revolv- 
ing quill  within  the  shuttle  lets  the  weft-thread  play 
out  during  this  side-to-side  motion  of  the  shuttle. 
The  shuttle  must  not  be  thrown  too  sharply  else  it 
will  rebound  and  make  a  slack  thread  in  the  weft. 
By  the  third  motion  the  batten  crowds  this  weft- 
thread  into  place.  Then  the  motion  of  the  other 
foot-treadle  forces  down  the  other  warp-threads 
which  pass  through  the  second  set  of  harnesses, 
the  shuttle  is  thrown  back  through  this  shed,  and 
so  on. 

In  order  to  show  the  amount  of  work,  the  num- 
ber of  separate  motions  in  a  day's  work  in  weaving 
of  close  woollen  cloth  like  broadcloth  (which  was 
only  about  three  yards),  we  must  remember  that 
the  shuttle  was  thrown  over  three  thousand  times, 
and  the  treadles  pressed  down  and  batten  swung 
the  same  number  of  times. 

A  simple  but  clear  description  of  the  process  of 
weaving  is  given  in  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  thus 
Englished  in  1724:  — 

"  The  piece  prepare 
And  order  every  slender  thread  with  care ; 
The  web  enwraps  the  beam,  the  reed  divides 


Hand- Weaving 


223 


While  through  the  widening  space  the  shuttle  glides, 
Which  their  swift  hands  receive,  then  poised  with  lead 
The  swinging  weight  strikes  close  the  inserted  thread." 

A  loom  attachment  which  I  puzzled  over  was  a 
tomble  or  tumble,  the  word  being  seen  in  eighteenth- 
century  lists,  etc.,  yet  absolutely  untraceable.  I  at 
last  inferred,  and  a  weaver  confirmed  my  inference, 
that  it  was  a  corruption  of  temple,  an  attachment 
made  of  flat,  narrow  strips  of  wood  as  long  as  the 


Loom  Temples 


web'  is  wide,  with  hooks  or  pins  at  the  end  to  catch 
into  the  selvage  of  the  cloth,  and  keep  the  cloth 
stretched  firmly  an  even  width  while  the  reed  beats 
the  weft-thread  into  place. 

There  were  many  other  simple  yet  effective  attach- 
ments to  the  loom.  Their  names  have  been  upon 
the  lips  of  scores  of  thousands  of  English-speaking 
people,  and  the  words  are  used  in  all  treatises  on 
weaving ;  yet  our  dictionaries  are  dumb  and  igno- 


224 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


rant  of  their  existence.  There  was  the  pace-weight, 
which  kept  the  warp  even  ;  and  the  bore-staff,  which 
tightened  the  warp.  When  a  sufficient  length  of 
woof  had  been  woven  (it  was  usually  a  few  inches), 
the  weaver  proceeded  to  do  what  was  called  draw- 
ing a  bore  or  a  sink.  He  shifted  the  temple  for- 
ward ;  rolled  up  the  cloth  on  the  cloth  bar,  which 
had  a  crank-handle  and  ratchets  ;  unwound  the  warp 
a  few  inches,  shifted  back  the  rods  and  heddles,  and 
started  afresh. 

Looms  and  their  appurtenances  were  usually  made 
by  local  carpenters ;  and  it  can  plainly  be  seen  that 
thus  constant  work  was  furnished  to  many  classes  of 
workmen  in  every  community, — wood-turners,  beam- 
makers,  timber-sawyers,  and  others.  The  various 
parts  of  the  looms  were  in  unceasing  demand,  though 
apparently  they  never  wore  out.  The  sley  was  the 
most  delicate  part  of  the  mechanism.  Good  sley- 
makers  could  always  command  high  prices  for  their 
sleys.  I  have  seen  one  whole  and  good,  which  has 
been  in  general  use  for  weaving  rag  carpets  ever  since 
the  War  of  1812,  for  which  a  silver  dollar  was  paid. 
Spools  were  turned  and  marked  with  the  maker's  in- 
itials. There  were  choice  and  inexplicable  lines  in 
the  shape  of  a  shuttle  as  there  are  in  a  boat's  hull. 
When  a  shuttle  was  carefully  shaped,  scraped,  hol- 
lowed out,  tipped  with  steel,  and  had  the  maker's 


Hand-Weaving 


225 


initials  burnt  in  it,  it  was  a  proper  piece  of  work,  of 
which  any  craftsman  might  be  proud.  Apple-wood 
and  boxwood  were  the  choice  for  shuttles. 


Loom  Shuttles 


Smaller  looms,  called  tape-looms,  braid-looms, 
belt-looms,  garter-looms,  or  "gallus-frames,"  were 
seen  in  many  American  homes,  and  useful  they 
were  in  days  when  linen,  cotton,  woollen,  or  silk 
tapes,  bobbins,  and  webbings  or  ribbons  were  not 
common  and  cheap  as  to-day.  Narrow  bands  such 
as  tapes,  none-so-pretty's,  ribbons,  caddises,  ferret- 
ings, inkles,  were  woven  on  these  looms  for  use  for 
garters,  points,  glove-ties,  hair-laces,  shoestrings, 
belts,  hat-bands,  stay-laces,  breeches-suspenders,  etc. 

These  tape-looms  are  a  truly  ancient  form  of  ap- 
pliance for  the  hand-weaving  of  narrow  bands,  —  a 
heddle-frame.  They  are  rudely  primitive  in  shape, 
but  besides  serving  well  the  colonists  in  all  our 
original  states,  are  still  in  use  among  the  Indian 
tribes  in  New  Mexico  and  in  Lapland,  Italy,  and 
northern  Germany.    They  are  scarcely  more  than 


226  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

a  slightly  shaped  board  so  cut  in  slits  that  the 
centre  of  the  board  is  a  row  of  narrow  slats.  These 
slats  are  pierced  in  a  row  by  means  of  a  heated  wire 


Tape-loom 


and  the  warp-threads  are  passed  through  the  holes. 

A  common  form  of  braid-loom  was  one  that  was 
laid  upon  a  table.    A  still  simpler  form  was  held 


Silk  Braid-loom 


Hand-Weaving 


227 


upright  on  the  lap,  the  knees  being  firmly  pressed 
into  semicircular  indentations  cut  for  the  purpose 
on  either  side  of  the  board  which  formed  the 
lower  part  of  the  loom.  The  top  of  the  loom 
was  steadied  by  being  tied  with  a  band  to  the  top 
of  a  chair,  or  a  hook  in  the  wall.  It  was  such  light 
and  pretty  work  that  it  seemed  merely  an  industrial 
amusement,  and  girls  carried  their  tape-looms  to  a 
neighbor's  house  for  an  afternoon's  work,  just  as 
they  did  their  knitting-needles  and  ball  of  yarn.  A 
fringe-loom  might  also  be  occasionally  found,  for 
weaving  decorative  fringes ;  these  were  more  com- 
mon in  the  Hudson  River  valley  than  elsewhere. 

I  have  purposely  given  minute,  but  I  trust  not 
tiresome,  details  of  the  operation  of  weaving  on  a 
hand-loom,  because  a  few  years  more  will  see  the 
last  of  those  who  know  the  operation  and  the  terms 
used.  The  fact  that  so  many  terms  are  now  obso- 
lete proves  how  quickly  disuse  brings  oblivion. 
When  in  a  country  crowded  full  of  weavers,  as 
was  England  until  about  1845,  t^le  knowledge  has 
so  suddenly  disappeared,  need  we  hope  for  much 
greater  memory  or  longer  life  here?  When  what 
is  termed  the  Westmoreland  Revival  of  domestic  in- 
dustries was  begun  eight  or  ten  years  ago,  the  great- 
est difficulty  was  found  in  obtaining  a  hand-loom. 
No  one  knew  how  to  set  it  up,  and  it  was  a  long 


228 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


time  before  a  weaver  could  be  found  to  run  it  and 
teach  others  its  use. 

The  first  half  of  this  century  witnessed  a  vital 
struggle  in  England,  and  to  an  extent  in  America, 
between  hand  and  power  machinery,  and  an  inter- 
esting race  between  spinning  and  weaving.  Under 
old-time  conditions  it  was  calculated  that  it  took 
the  work  of  four  spinners,  who  spun  swiftly  and 
constantly,  to  supply  one  weaver.  As  spinning  was 
ever  what  was  known  as  a  by-industry,  —  that  is, 
one  that  chiefly  was  done  by  being  caught  up  at 
odd  moments,  —  the  supply  both  in  England  and 
America  did  not  equal  the  weavers'  demands,  and 
ten  spinners  had  to  be  calculated  to  supply  yarn  for 
one  weaver.  Hence  weavers  never  had  to  work  very 
hard ;  as  a  rule,  they  could  have  one  holiday  in  the 
week.  What  with  Sundays,  wakes,  and  fairs,  Irish 
weavers  worked  only  two  hundred  days  in  the  year. 
In  England  the  weaver  often  had  to  spend  one  day 
out  of  the  six  hunting  around  the  country  for  yarn 
for  weft.  So  inventive  wits  were  set  at  work  to  en- 
large the  supply  of  yarn,  and  spinning  machinery 
was  the  result.  Thereafter  the  looms  and  weavers 
were  pushed  hard  and  had  to  turn  to  invention. 
The  shuttle  had  always  simply  been  passed  from 
one  hand  to  the  other  of  the  weaver  on  either  side 
of  the  web.    The  fly-shuttle  was  now  invented, 


Hand-Weaving 


229 


which   by  a  simple 
piece  of  machinery, 
worked  by  one  hand, 
threw     the  shuttle 
swiftly  backward  and  /§ 
forward,  and 
loom  was 
ahead  in  the 
race.  Then 
came  the 
spinning -jen- 


ny 


w 


hich 


spun  yarn 


with  a  hundred  spin- 
dles on  each  machine. 
But  this  was  for  weft 
yarns,  and  did  not 
make  strong  warps. 
Finally  Arkwright 
supplied  this  lack  in 
water-twist  or  "  thros- 
tle-spun "  yarn.  All 
these  inventions  again 

Quilling-wheels  1  11 

overcrowded  the  weav- 
ers ;  all  attempts  at  hand-spinning  of  cotton  had 
become  quickly  extinct.     Wool-spinning  lingered 


230  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


longer.  Five  Tomlinson  sisters,  —  the  youngest 
forty  years  old,  —  with  two  pair  of  wool-cards  and 
five  hand-wheels,  paid  the  rent  of  their  farm,  kept 
three  cows,  one  horse,  had  a  ploughed  field,  and 
made  prime  butter  and  eggs.  One  sister  clung  to 
her  spinning  till  1822.  Power-looms  were  invented 
to  try  to  use  up  the  jenny's  supply  of  yarn,  but 
these  -did  not  crowd  out  hand-looms.  Weavers 
never  had  so  good  wages.  It  was  the  Golden 
Age  of  Cotton.  Some  families  earned  six  pounds 
a  week ;  good  clothes,  even  to  the  extent  of  ruffled 
shirts,  good  furniture,  even  to  silver  spoons,  good 
food,  plentiful  ale  and  beer,  entered  every  English 
cottage  with  the  weaving  of  cotton  and  wool.  A 
far  more  revolutionary  and  more  hated  machine 
than  the  power-loom  was  the  combing-machine 
called  Big  Ben. 

"  Come  all  ye  Master  Combers,  and  hear  of  our  Big  Ben. 
He'll  comb  more  wool  than  fifty  of  your  men 
With  their  hand-combs,  and  comb-pots,  and  such  old- 
fashioned  way." 

Flax-spinning  and  linen-weaving  by  power  ma- 
chinery were  slower  in  being  established.  English- 
men were  halting  in  perfecting  these  machines. 
Napoleon  offered  in  18 10  a  million  francs  for  a  flax- 
spinning  machine.     A  clever  Frenchman  claimed 


Hand- Weaving 


231 


to  have  invented  one  in  response  in  a  single  day,  but 
similar  clumsy  machines  had  then  been  running  in 
England  for  twenty  years.  By  1850  men,  women, 
and  children  —  combers,  spinners,  and  weavers  — 
were  no  longer  individual  workers;  they  had  be- 
come part  of  that  great  monster,  the  mill-machinery. 
Riots  and  misery  were  the  first  result  of  the  pass- 
ing of  hand  weaving  and  spinning. 

In  the  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman  (1360)  are 
these  lines  :  — 

"  Cloth  that  cometh  fro  the  wevyng 
Is  nought  comly  to  were 
Till  it  be  fulled  under  foot 
Or  in  fullyng  stokkes 
Wasshen  wel  with  water 
And  with  taseles  cracched, 
Y-touked  and  y-tented 
And  under  taillours  hande." 

Just  so  in  the  colonies  four  centuries  later,  cloth 
that  came  from  the  weaving  was  not  comely  to 
wear  till  it  was  fulled  under  foot  or  in  fulling-stocks, 
washed  well  in  water,  scratched  and  dressed  with 
teazels,  dyed  and  tented,  and  put  in  the  tailor's 
hands.  Nor  did  the  roll  of  centuries  bring  a  change 
in  the  manner  of  proceeding.  If  grease  had  been 
put  on  the  wool  when  it  was  carded,  or  sizing  in 


2^2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


the  warp  for  the  weaving,  it  was  washed  out  by 
good  rinsing  from  the  woven  cloth.  This  became 
now  somewhat  uneven  and  irregular  in  appearance, 
and  full  of  knots  and  fuzzes  which  were  picked  out 
with  hand-tweezers  by  burlers  before  it  was  fulled 
or  milled,  as  it  was  sometimes  called.  The  fulling- 
stocks  were  a  trough  in  which  an  enormous  oaken 
hammer  was  made  to  pound  up  and  down,  while 
the  cloth  was  kept  thoroughly  wet  with  warm  soap 
and  water,  or  fullers'  earth  and  water.  Naturally 
this  thickened  the  web  much  and  reduced  it  in 
length.  It  was  then  teazelled ;  that  is,  a  nap  or 
rough  surface  was  raised  all  over  it  by  scratching 
it  with  weavers'  teazels  or  thistles.  Many  wire 
brushes  and  metal  substitutes  have  been  tried  to 
take  the  place  of  nature's  gift  to  the  cloth-worker, 
the  teazel,  but  nothing  has  been  invented  to  replace 
with  full  satisfaction  that  wonderful  scratcher.  For 
the  slender  recurved  bracts  of  the  teazel  heads  are 
stiff  and  prickly  enough  to  roughen  thoroughly  the 
nap  of  the  cloth,  yet  they  yield  at  precisely  the 
right  point  to  keep  from  injuring  the  fabric. 

If  the  cloth  were  to  be  "  y-touked,"  that  is, 
dyed,  it  was  done  at  this  period,  and  it  was  then 
"  y-tented,"  spread  on  the  tenter-field  and  caught 
on  tenter-hooks,  to  shrink  and  dry. 

Nowadays,  we  sometimes  cut  or  crop  the  nap 


Hand-Weaving 


233 


with  long  shears,  and  boil  the  web  to  give  it  a  lus- 
tre, and  ink  it  to  color  any  ill-dyed  fibres,  and  press 
it  between  hot  plates  before  it  goes  to  the  tailor's 


Loom  Basket  and  Bobbins 


hands;  bu,t  these  injurious  processes  were  omitted  in 
olden  times.  Worsted  stuffs  were  not  fulled,  but 
were  woven  of  hand-combed  wool. 


234  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Linen  webs  after  they  were  woven  had  even  more 
manipulations  to  come  to  them  than  woollen  stuffs. 
In  spite  of  all  the  bleaching  of  the  linen  thread,  it 
still  was  light  brown  in  color,  and  it  had  to  go 
through  at  least  twoscore  other  processes,  of  buck- 
ing, possing,  rinsing,  drying,  and  bleaching  on  the 
grass.  Sometimes  it  was  stretched  out  on  pegs 
with  loops  sewed  on  the  selvage  edge.  This 
bleaching  was  called  crofting  in  England,  and  grass- 
ing in  America.  Often  it  was  thus  spread  on  the 
grass  for  weeks,  and  was  slightly  wetted  several 
times  a  day ;  but  not  too  wet,  else  it  would  mildew. 
In  all,  over  forty  bleaching  operations  were  em- 
ployed upon  "light  linens. "  Sometimes  they  were 
"  soured "  in  buttermilk  to  make  them  purely 
white.  Thus  at  least  sixteen  months  had  passed 
since  the  flaxseed  had  been  sown,  in  which,  truly, 
the  spinster  had  not  eaten  the  bread  of  idleness. 
In  the  winter  months  the  fine,  white,  strong  linen 
was  made  into  "  board  cloths "  or  tablecloths, 
sheets,  pillow-biers,  aprons,  shifts,  shirts,  petticoats, 
short  gowns,  gloves,  cut  from  the  spinner's  own 
glove  pattern,  and  a  score  of  articles  for  household 
use.  These  were  carefully  marked,  and  sometimes 
embroidered  with  home-dyed  crewels,  as  were  also 
splendid  sets  of  bed-hangings,  valances,  and  testers 
for  four-post  bedsteads. 


Hand-Weaving  235 

The  homespun  linens  that  were  thus  spun  and 
woven  and  bleached  were  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful expressions  and  types  of  old-time  home  life. 
Firm,  close-woven,  and  pure,  their  designs  were  not 
greatly  varied,  nor  was  their  woof  as  symmetrical 
and  perfect  as  modern  linens  —  but  thus  were  the 
lives  of  those  who  made  them  ;  firm,  close-woven 
in  neighborly  kindness,  with  the  simplicity  both  of 
innocence  and  ignorance ;  their  days  had  little 
variety,  and  life  was  not  altogether  easy,  and,  like 
the  web  they  wove,  it  was  sometimes  narrow.  I  am 
always  touched  when  handling  these  homespun 
linens  with  a  consciousness  of  nearness  to  the 
makers  ;  with  a  sense  of  the  energy  and  strength 
of  those  enduring  women  who  were  so  full  of 
vitality,  of  unceasing  action,  that  it  does  not  seem 
to  me  they  can  be  dead. 

The  strong,  firm  linen  woven  in  many  struggling 
country  homes  was  too  valuable  and  too  readily 
exchangeable  and  salable  to  be  kept  wholly  for  farm 
use,  especially  when  there  were  so  few  salable  arti- 
cles produced  on  the  farm.  It  was  sold  or  "more 
frequently  exchanged  at  the  village  store  for  any 
desired  commodity,  such  as  calico,  salt,  sugar,  spices, 
or  tea.  It  readily  sold  for  forty-two  cents  a  yard. 
Therefore  the  boys  and  even  the  fathers  did  not 
always  have  linen  shirts  to  wear.     From  the  tow 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


which  had  been  hatchelled  out  from  harl  a  coarse 
thread  was  spun  and  cloth  was  woven  which 
was  made  chiefly  into  shirts  and  smocks  and  tow 
"tongs"  or  "skilts,"  which  were  loose  flapping 
summer  trousers  which  ended  almost  half-way  from 
the  knee  to  the  ankle.  This  tow  stuff*  was  never 
free  from  prickling  spines,  and  it  proved,  so  tradi- 
tion states,  an  absolute  instrument  of  torture  to  the 
wearer,  until  frequent  washings  had  worn  it  out  and 
thus  subdued  its  knots  and  spines. 

A  universal  stuff"  woven  in  New  Hampshire  by 
the  Scotch-Irish  linen-weavers  who  settled  there, 
and  who  influenced  husbandry  and  domestic  manu- 
factures and  customs  all  around  them,  was  what  was 
known  as  striped  frocking.  It  was  worn  also  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts. The  warp  was  strong  white  cotton  or  tow 
thread,  the  weft  of  blue  and  white  stripes  made  by 
weaving  alternately  a  shuttleful  of  indigo-dyed 
homespun  yarn  and  one  of  white  wool  or  tow. 
Many  boys  grew  to  manhood  never  wearing,  except 
on  Sundays,  any  kind  of  coat  save  a  long,  loose, 
shapeless  jacket  or  smock  of  this  striped  frocking, 
known  everywhere  as  a  long-short.  The  history 
of  the  old  town  of  Charmingfare  tells  of  the  farmers 
in  that  vicinity  tying  tight  the  two  corners  of  this 
long-short  at  the  waist  and  thus  making  a  sort  of 


Garter-loom 


Hand- Weaving 


loose  bag  in  which  various  articles  could  be  carried. 
Sylvester  Judd,  in  his  Margaret,  the  classic  of  old 
New  England  life,  has  his  country  women  dressed 
also  in  long-shorts,  and  tells  of  the  same  fabric. 

Another  material  which  was  universal  in  country 
districts  had  a  flax  or  tow  warp,  and  a  coarser  slack- 
twisted  cotton  or  tow  filling.  This  cloth  was  dyed 
and  pressed  and  was  called  fustian.  It  was  worth  a 
shilling  a  yard  in  1640.  It  was  named  in  the  earliest 
colonial  accounts,  and  was  in  truth  the  ancient  fus- 
tian, worn  throughout  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages 
for  monks'  robes  and  laborers'  dress,  not  the  stuff* 
to-day  called  fustian.  We  read  in  The  Squier  of 
Low  Degree,  "  Your  blanketts  shall  be  of  fustayne." 

Another  coarse  cloth  made  in  New  England, 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas  was  cro- 
cus. The  stuff  is  obsolete  and  the  name  is  forgotten 
save  in  a  folk-saying  which  lingers  in  Virginia  — 
"  as  coarse  as  crocus."  Homespun  stuff  for  the 
wear  of  negroes  was  known  and  sold  as  "  Virginia 
cloth."  Vast  quantities  of  homespun  cloth  was 
made  on  Virginian  plantations,  thousands  of  yards 
annually  at  Mount  Vernon  for  slave-wear,  and  for 
the  house-mistress  as  well. 

It  is  told  of  Martha  Washington  that  she  always 
carefully  dyed  all  her  worn  silk  gowns  and  silk 
scraps  to  a  desired  shade,  ravelled  them  with  care, 


» 


238  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


wound  them  on  bobbins,  and  had  them  woven  into 
chair  and  cushion  covers.  Sometimes  she  changed 
the  order  of  things.  To  a  group  of  visitors  she  at 
one  time  displayed  a  dress  of  red  and  white  striped 
material  of  which  the  white  stripes  were  cotton,  and 
the  red,  ravelled  chair  covers  and  silk  from  the 
General's  worn-out  stockings. 

Checked  linen,  with  bars  of  red  or  blue,  was  much 
used  for  bedticks,  pillow-cases,  towelling,  aprons, 
and  even  shirts  and  summer  trousers.  In  all  the 
Dutch  communities  in  New  York  it  was  woven 
till  this  century.  When  Benjamin  Tappan  first 
attended  meeting  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts, 
in  1769,  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  all  the  men 
in  the  church  but  four  or  five  wore  checked  shirts. 
Worcester  County  men  always  wore  white  shirts, 
and  deemed  a  checked  shirt  the  mark  of  a  Connecti- 
cut River  man. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  durability 
of  homespun  materials.  I  have  "  flannel  sheets  " 
a  hundred  years  old,  the  lightest,  most  healthful, 
and  agreeable  summer  covering  for  children's  beds 
that  ever  any  one  was  blessed  with.  Cradle  sheets 
of  this  thin,  closely  woven,  white  worsted  stuff  are 
not  slimsy  like  thin  flannel,  yet  are  softer  than 
flannel.  Years  of  use  with  many  generations  of 
children  have  left  them  firm  and  white. 


Hand- Weaving  239 

Grain-bags  have  been  seen  that  have  been  in  con- 
stant and  hard  use  for  seventy  years,  homespun 
from  coarse  flax  and  hemp.  I  have  several  delight- 
ful bags  about  four  feet  long  and  two  feet  wide,  of 
rather  closely  woven  pure  white  homespun  linen,  not 
as  heavy,  however,  as  crash.  They  have  the  date 
of  their  manufacture,  1789,  and  the  initials  of  the 
weaver,  and  have  linen  tapes  woven  in  at  each  side. 
They  are  used  every  spring  —  packed  with  furs 
and  blankets  and  placed  in  cedar  chests,  and  with 
such  usage  will  easily  round  out  another  century. 

The  product  of  these  hand-looms  which  has 
lingered  longest  in  country  use,  especially  in  the 
Northern  states,  and  which  is  the  sole  product  of 
all  the  hand-looms  that  I  know  to  be  set  up  and 
in  use  in  New  England  (except  one  notable  example 
to  which  I  will  refer  hereafter),  is  the  rag  carpet. 
It  is  still  in  constant  demand  and  esteem  on  farms 
and  in  small  villages  and  towns,  and  is  an  economi- 
cal and  thrifty,  and  may  be  a  comely  floor-covering. 
The  accompanying  illustration  of  a  woman  weaving 
rag  carpet  on  an  old  hand-loom  is  from  a  fine  pho- 
tograph taken  by  Mrs.  Arthur  Sewall  of  Bath, 
Maine,  and  gives  an  excellent  presentment  of  the 
machine  and  the  process. 

The  warp  of  these  carpets  was,  in  olden  times,  a 
strong,  heavy  flaxen  thread.    To-day  it  is  a  heavy 


240  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

cotton  twine  bought  machine-spun  in  balls  or 
hanks.  The  weft  or  filling  is  narrow  strips  of  all 
the  clean  and  varicolored  rags  that  accumulate  in 
a  household. 

The  preparing  of  this  filling  requires  considerable 
judgment.  Heavy  woollen  cloth  should  be  cut  in 
strips  about  half  an  inch  wide.  If  there  were 
sewn  with  these  strips  of  light  cotton  stuff  of  equal 


Hand  Stamps  for  Calico  Printing 


width,  the  carpet  would  prove  a  poor  thing,  heavy 
in  spots  and  slimsy  in  others.  Hence  lighter  stuffs 
should  be  cut  in  wider  strips,  as  they  can  then  be 
crowded  down  by  the  batten  of  the  loom  to  the 
same  width  and  substance  as  the  heavy  wools. 
Calicoes,  cottons,  all-wool  delaines,  and  lining  cam- 
brics should  be  cut  in  strips  at  least  an  inch  wide. 
These  strips,  of  whatever  length  they  chance  to  be, 


Hand-Weaving 


241 


are  sewn  into  one  continuous  strip,  which  is  rolled 
into  a  hard  ball  weighing  about  a  pound  and  a 
quarter.  It  is  calculated  that  one  of  these  balls 
will  weave  about  a  yard  of  carpeting.  The  joining 
must  be  strongly  and  neatly  done  and  should  not 
be  bunchy.  An  aged  weaver  who  had  woven  many 
thousand  yards  of  carpeting  assured  me  the  pret- 
tiest carpets  were  always  those  in  which  every  alter- 
nate strip  was  white  or  very  light  in  color."  Another 
thrifty  way  of  using  old  material  is  the  cutting  into 
inch-wide  strips  of  woven  ingrain  or  three-ply 
carpet.  This,  through  the  cotton  warp,  makes  a 
really  artistic  monochrome  floor-covering. 

In  one  of  the  most  romantic  and  beautiful  spots 
in  old  Narragansett  lives  the  last  of  the  old-time 
weavers ;  not  a  weaver  who  desultorily  weaves  a 
run  of  rag  carpeting  to  earn  a  little  money  in  the 
intervals  of  other  work,  or  to  please  some  import- 
unate woman-neighbor  who  has  saved  up  her  rags  ; 
but  a  weaver  whose  lifelong  occupation,  whose 
only  means  of  livelihood,  has  always  been,  and  is 
still,  hand-weaving.  I  have  told  his  story  at  some 
length  in  my  book,  Old  Narragansett,  —  of  his 
kin,  his  life,  his  work.  His  home  is  at  the  cross- 
roads where  three  townships  meet,  a  cross-roads 
where  has  often  taken  place  that  curious  and  sense- 
less survival  of  old-time  tradition  and  superstition  — 

R 


242  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


shift  marriages.  A  widow,  a  cousin  of  the  Weaver 
Rose's  father,  was  the  last  to  undergo  this  ordeal ; 
clad  only  in  her  shift,  she  thrice  crossed  the  King's 
Highway  and  was  thus  married  to  avoid  payment 
of  her  first  husband's  debts.  It  is  not  far  from  the 
old  Church  Foundation  of  St.  Paul's  of  Narragan- 
sett,  and  the  tumble-down  house  of  Sexton  Martin 
Read,  the  prince  of  Narragansett  weavers  in  ante- 
Revolutionary  days.  Weaver  Rose  learned  to 
weave  from  his  grandfather,  who  was  an  apprentice 
of  Weaver  Read. 

In  the  loom-room  of  Weaver  Rose  a  veritable 
atmosphere  of  the  past  still  lingers.  Everything 
appertaining  to  the  manufacture  of  homespun 
materials  may  there  be  found.  Wheels,  skarnes,. 
sleys,  warping-bars,  clock-reels,  swifts,  quilling- 
wheels,  vast  bales  of  yarns  and  thread  —  for  he  no 
longer  spins  his  thread  and  yarn.  There  are  piles 
of  old  and  new  bed  coverlets  woven  in  those  fanci- 
ful geometric  designs,  which  are  just  as  the  ancient 
Gauls  wove  them  in  the  Bronze  Age,  and  which 
formed  a  favorite  bed-covering  of  our  ancestors, 
and  of  country  folk  to-day.  These  coverlets  the 
weaver  calls  by  the  good  old  English  name  of 
hap-harlot,  a  name  now  obsolete  in  England,  which 
I  have  never  seen  used  in  text  of  later  date  than 
Holinshead's  Survey  of  London,  written  four  hundred 


Hand-Weaving 


243 


years  ago.  His  manuscript  pattern-book  is  over 
a  hundred  years  old,  and  has  the  rules  for  setting 
the  harnesses.  They  bear  many  pretty  and  odd 
names,  such  as  "  Rosy  Walk,"  "  Baltimore  Beauty," 


"Orange  Peel,"  "  Bhzing  Star,"  "Chariot  Wheels  and  Church  Windows," 

"Bachelor's  Fancy" 


244  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


"Girl's  Love,"  "Queen's  Fancy,"  "Devil's  Fancy," 
"Everybody's  Beauty,"  "Four  Snow  Balls,"  "Five 
Snow  Balls,"  "Bricks  and  Blocks,"  "Gardener's 
Note,"  "  Green  Vails,"  "  Rose  in  Bloom,"  "  Pan- 
sies  and  Roses  in  the  Wilderness,"  "  Flag- Work," 
"  Royal  Beauty,"  "  Indian  March,"  "  Troy's 
Beauty,"  "  Primrose  and  Diamonds,"  "  Crown  and 
Diamonds,"  "Jay's  Fancy,"  "  In  Summer  and  Win- 
ter," "  Boston  Beauty,"  and  "  Indian  War."  One 
named  "  Bony  Part's  March  "  was  very  pretty,  as 
was  "  Orange  Peel,"  and  "  Orange  Trees  "  ;  "  Dog 
Tracks "  was  even  checkerwork,  "  Blazing  Star," 
a  herring-bone  design.  "  Perry's  Victory "  and 
"  Lady  Washington's  Delight  "  show  probably  the 
date  of  their  invention,  and  were  handsome  designs, 
while  the  "  Whig  Rose  from  Georgia,"  which  had 
been  given  to  the  weaver  by  an  old  lady  a  hun- 
dred years  old,  had  proved  a  poor  and  ugly  thing. 
"  Kapa's  Diaper  "  was  a  complicated  design  which 
took  "  five  harnesses "  to  make.  "  Rattlesnake's 
Trail,"  "  Wheels  of  Fancy,"  "  Chariot  Wheels  and 
Church  Windows,"  and  "Bachelor's  Fancy  "  were 
all  exceptionally  fine  designs. 

Sometimes  extremely  elaborate  patterns  were 
woven  in  earlier  days.  An  exquisitely  woven  cover- 
let as  fine  as  linen  sheeting,  a  corner  of  which  is 
here  shown,  has  an  elaborate  border  of  patriotic  and 


Hand- Weaving  245 


Hand-woven  Bed  Coverlet 


Masonic  emblems,  patriotic  inscriptions,  and  the 
name  of  the  maker,  a  Red  Hook,  Hudson  valley, 
dame  of  a  century  ago,  who  wove  this  beautiful 
bedspread  as  the  crowning  treasure  of  her  bridal 
outfit.  The  "  setting-up  "  of  such  a  design  as  this 
is  entirely  beyond  my  skill  as  a  weaver  to  explain 
or  even  comprehend.  But  it  is  evident  that  the 
border  must  have  been  woven  by  taking  up  a  single 


246  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


warp-thread  at  a  time,  with  a  wire  needle,  not  by 
passing  a  shuttle,  as  it  is  far  too  complicated  and 
varied  for  any  treadle-harness  to  be  able  to  make  a 
shed  for  a  shuttle. 

Hand-weaving  in  Weaver  Rose's  loom-room  to- 
day is  much  simplified  in  many  of  its  preparatory 
details  by  the  employment  of  machine-made  mate- 
rials. The  shuttles  and  spools  are  made  by  ma- 
chinery ;  and  more  important  still,  both  warp  and 
weft  is  purchased  ready-spun  from  mills.  The 
warp  is  simply  a  stout  cotton  twine  or  coarse  thread 
bought  in  balls  or  hanks  ;  while  various  cheap  mill- 
yarns  or  what  is  known  as  worsteds  or  coarse  crewels 
are  used  as  filling.  These,  of  course,  are  cheap,  but 
alas  !  are  dyed  with  fleeting  or  garish  aniline  dyes. 
No  new  blue  yarn  can  equal  either  in  color  or 
durability  the  old  indigo-dyed,  homespun,  hard- 
twisted  yarn  made  on  a  spinning-wheel.  Ger- 
mantown,  early  in  the  field  in  American  wool 
manufacture,  still  supplies  nearly  all  the  yarn  for 
his  hand-looms. 

The  transition  half  a  century  or  more  ago  from 
what  Horace  Bushnell  called  "  mother  and  daughter 
power  to  water  and  steam  power,"  was  a  complete 
revolution  in  domestic  life,  and  indeed  of  social 
manners  as  well.  When  a  people  spin  and  weave 
and  make  their  own  dress,  you  have  in  this  very 


Hand- Weaving 


247 


fact  the  assurance  that  they  are  home-bred,  home- 
living,  home-loving  people.  You  are  sure,  also, 
that  the  lives  of  the  women  are  home-centred. 
The  chief  cause  for  women's  intercourse  with  any 
of  the  outside  world  except  neighborly  acquain- 
tance, her  chief  knowledge  of  trade  and  exchange, 
is  in  shopping,  dressmaking,  etc.  These  causes 
scarcely  existed  in  country  communities  a  century 
ago.  The  daughters  who  in  our  days  of  factories 
leave  the  farm  for  the  cotton-mill,  where  they  per- 
form but  one  of  the  many  operations  in  cloth  manu- 
facture, can  never  be  as  good  home-makers  or  as 
helpful  mates  as  the  homespun  girls  of  our  grand- 
mothers' days  ;  nor  can  they  be  such  co-workers  in 
great  public  movements. 

In  the  summer  of  1775,  when  all  the  preparations 
for  the  War  of  the  Revolution  were  in  a  most 
unsettled  and  depressing  condition,  especially  the 
supplies  for  the  Continental  army,  the  Provincial 
Congress  made  a  demand  on  the  people  for  thirteen 
thousand  warm  coats  to  be  ready  for  the  soldiers  by 
cold  weather.  There  were  no  great  contractors 
then  as  now  to  supply  the  cloth  and  make  the  gar- 
ments, but  by  hundreds  of  hearthstones  throughout 
the  country  wool-wheels  and  hand-looms  were 
started  eagerly  at  work,  and  the  order  was  filled  by 
the  handiwork  of  patriotic  American  women.  In 


248  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


the  record  book  of  some  New  England  towns  may 
still  be  found  the  lists  of  the  coat-makers.  In  the 
inside  of  each  coat  was  sewed  the  name  of  the  town 
and  the  maker.  Every  soldier  volunteering  for 
eight  months'  service  was  given  one  of  these  home- 
spun, home-made,  all-wool  coats  as  a  bounty.  So 
highly  were  these  "  Bounty  Coats  "  prized,  that  the 
heirs  of  soldiers  who  were  killed  at  Bunker  Hill 
before  receiving  their  coats  were  given  a  sum  of 
money  instead.  The  list  of  names  of  soldiers  who 
then  enlisted  is  known  to  this  day  as  the  "  Coat 
Roll/'  and  the  names  of  the  women  who  made 
the  coats  might  form  another  roll  of  honor.  The 
English  sneeringly  called  Washington's  army  the 
"  Homespuns."  It  was  a  truthful  nickname,  but 
there  was  deeper  power  in  the  title  than  the  English 
scoffers  knew. 

The  starting  up  of  power-looms  and  the  wonder- 
ful growth  of  woollen  manufacture  did  not  crowd 
out  homespun  as  speedily  in  America  as  in  England. 
When  the  poet  Whittier  set  out  from  the  Quaker 
farmhouse  to  go  to  Boston  to  seek  his  fortune,  he 
wore  a  homespun  suit  every  part  of  which,  even 
the  horn  buttons,  was  of  domestic  manufacture. 
Many  a  man  born  since  Whittier  has  grown  to 
manhood  clothed  for  every-day  wear  wholly  with 
homespun  ;  and  many  a  boy  is  living  who  was  sent 


Hand- Weaving 


249 


to  college  dressed  wholly  in  a  "  full-cloth "  suit, 
with  horn  buttons  or  buttons  made  of  discs  of 
heavy  leather. 

During  the  Civil  War  spinning  and  weaving  were 
revived  arts  in  the  Confederate  cities ;  and,  as  ever 
in  earlier  days,  proved  a  most  valuable  economic 
resource  under  restricted  conditions.  In  the  home 
of  a  friend  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  an  old, 
worm-eaten  loom  was  found  in  a  garret  where  it  had 
lain  since  the  embargo  in  18 12.  It  was  set  up  in 
1863,  and  plantation  carpenters  made  many  like  it 
for  neighbors  and  fellow-citizens.  All  women  in 
the  mountain  districts  knew  how  to  use  the  loom, 
and  taught  weaving  to  many  others,  both  white  and 
black.  A  portion  of  the  warp,  which  was  cotton, 
was  spun  at  home;  more  was  bought  from  a  cotton- 
factory.  My  friend  sacrificed  a  great  number  of 
excellent  wool-mattresses  ;  this  wool  was  spun  into 
yarn  and  used  for  weft,  and  formed  a  most  grateful 
and  dignified  addition  to  the  varied,  grotesque,  and 
interesting  makeshifts  of  the  wardrobe  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy. 

Though  weaving  on  hand-looms  in  our  Northern 
and  Middle  states  is  practically  extinct,  save  as  to  the 
weaving  of  rag  carpets  (and  that  only  in  few  com- 
munities), in  the  South  all  is  different.  In  all  the 
mountain  and  remote  regions  of  Kentucky,  Tennes- 


250  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


see,  Georgia,  the  Carolinas,  and  I  doubt  not  in 
Alabama,  both  among  the  white  and  negro  moun- 
tain-dwellers, hand-weaving  is  still  a  household  art. 
The  descendants  of  the  Acadians  in  Louisiana  still 
weave  and  wear  homespun.  The  missions  in  the 
mountains  encourage  spinning  and  weaving ;  and  it 
is  pleasant  to  learn  that  many  women  not  only  pur- 
sue these  handicrafts  for  their  home  use,  but  some 
secure  a  good  living  by  hand-weaving,  earning  ten 
cents  a  yard  in  weaving  rag  carpets.  The  coverlet 
patterns  resemble  the  ones  already  described.  Names 
from  Waynesville,  North  Carolina,  are  "  Washing- 
ton's Diamond  Ring,"  "Nine  Chariot  Wheels,,; 
from  Pinehurst  come  "  Flowery  Vine/'  "  Double 
Table,''  "Cat  Track,"  "Snow  Ball  and  Dew  Drop," 
"  Snake  Shed,"  "  Flowers  in  the  Mountains."  At 
Pinehurst  the  old  settlers,  of  sturdy  Scotch  stock,  all 
weave.  They  make  cloth, all  cotton;  cloth  of  cotton 
warp  and  wool  filling  called  drugget ;  dimity,  a 
heavy  cotton  used  for  coverlets  ;  a  yarn  jean  which 
has  wool  warp  and  filling,  and  cotton  jean  which  is 
cotton  warp  and  wool  filling ;  homespun  is  a  heavy 
cloth,  of  cotton  and  wool  mixed.  All  buy  cotton 
warp  or  "  chain,"  as  they  call  it,  ready-spun  from 
the  mills.  This  is  known  by  the  name  of  bunch- 
thread.  These  Pinehurst  weavers  still  use  home- 
made dyes.    Cotton  is  dyed  black  with  dye  made 


Hand-Weaving 


by  steeping  the  bark  of  the  "  Black  Jack  "  or  scrub- 
oak  mixed  with  red  maple  bark.  Wool  is  dyed  black 
with  a  mixture  of  gall-berry  leaves  and  sumac  berries  ; 
for  red  they  use  a  moss  which  they  find  growing  on 
the  rocks,  and  which  may  be  the  lichen  Roccella  tinc- 
toria  or  dyer's-moss  ;  also  madder  root,  and  sassafras 
bark.  Yellow  is  dyed  with  laurel  leaves,  or  cc  dye- 
flower,"  a  yellow  flower  of  the  sunflower  tribe  ;  laurel 
leaves  and  "  dye-flower  "  together  made  orange-red. 
Blue  is  obtained  from  the  plentiful  wild  indigo ;  and 
for  green,  the  cloth  or  yarn  is  first  dyed  blue  with 
indigo,  then  boiled  in  a  decoction  of  hickory  bark 
and  laurel  leaves.  A  bright  yellow  is  obtained  from 
a  clay  which  abounds  in  that  neighborhood,  proba- 
bly like  a  red  ferruginous  limestone  found  in  Ten- 
nessee, which  gives  a  splendid,  fast  color ;  when  the 
clay  is  baked  and  ground  it  gives  a  fine,  artistic,  dull 
red.  Purple  dye  comes  from  cedar  tops  and  lilac 
leaves  ;  brown  from  an  extract  of  walnut  hulls. 

The  affectionate  regard  which  all  good  workmen 
have  for  their  tools  and  implements  in  handcrafts 
is  found  among  these  Southern  weavers.  One  as- 
sures me  that  her  love  for  her  loom  is  as  for  a  human 
companion.  The  machines  are  usually  family  heir- 
looms that  have  been  owned  for  several  generations, 
and  are  treasured  like  relics. 


CHAPTER  XI 


GIRLS  OCCUPATIONS 

HATCHELLING  and  carding,  spinning  and 
reeling,  weaving  and  bleaching,  cooking, 
candle  and  cheese  making,  were  not  the 
only  household  occupations  of  our  busy  grand- 
mothers when  they  were  young ;  a  score  of  domes- 
tic duties  kept  ever  busy  their  ready  hands. 

Some  notion  of  the  qualifications  of  a  housekeeper 
over  a  century  ago  may  be  obtained  from  this  ad- 
vertisement in  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  Septem- 
ber 23,  1780 : 

"  Wanted  at  a  Seat  about  half  a  day's  journey  from  Phila- 
delphia, on  which  are  good  improvements  and  domestics, 
A  single  Woman  of  unsullied  Reputation,  an  affable,  cheer- 
ful, active  and  amiable  Disposition ;  cleanly,  industrious, 
perfectly  qualified  to  direct  and  manage  the  female  Con- 
cerns of  country  business,  as  raising  small  stock,  dairying, 
marketing,  combing,  carding,  spinning,  knitting,  sewing, 
pickling,  preserving,  etc.,  and  occasionally  to  instruct  two 
young  Ladies  in  those  Branches  of  Oeconomy,  who,  with 
their  father,  compose  the  Family.     Such  a  person  will  be 

252 


Girls'  Occupations 


253 


treated  with  respect  and  esteem,  and  meet  with  every 
encouragement  due  to  such  a  character." 

Respect  and  esteem,  forsooth  !  and  due  encourage- 
ment to  such  a  miracle  of  saintliness  and  capacity ; 
light  terms  indeed  to  apply  to  such  a  character. 

There  is,  in  the  library  of  the  Connecticut  His- 
torical Society,  a  diary  written  by  a  young  girl  of 
Colchester,  Connecticut,  in  the  year  1775.  Her 
name  was  Abigail  Foote.  She  set  down  her  daily 
work,  and  the  entries  run  like  this  :  — 

"  Fix'd  gown  for  Prude,  —  Mend  Mother's  Riding-hood, 

—  Spun  short  thread,  —  Fix'd  two  gowns  for  Welsh's 
girls,  —  Carded  tow,  —  Spun  linen,  —  Worked  on  Cheese- 
basket, —  Hatchel'd  flax  with  Hannah,  we  did  51  lbs. 
apiece,  —  Pleated  and  ironed, —  Read  a  Sermon  of  Dod- 
dridge's,— -Spooled  a  piece,  —  Milked  the  cows,  —  Spun 
linen,  did  50  knots,  —  Made  a  Broom  of  Guinea  wheat 
straw,  —  Spun  thread  to  whiten,  —  Set  a  Red  dye,  —  Had 
two  Scholars  from  Mrs.  Taylor's,  —  I  carded  two  pounds 
of  whole  wool  and  felt  Nationly,  —  Spun  harness  twine, 

—  Scoured  the  pewter." 

She  tells  also  of  washing,  cooking,  knitting,  weed- 
ing the  garden,  picking  geese,  etc.,  and  of  many 
visits  to  her  friends.  She  dipped  candles  in  the 
spring,  and  made  soap  in  the  autumn.  This  latter 
was  a  trying  and  burdensome  domestic  duty,  but 
the  soft  soap  was  important  for  home  use. 


254  H  ome  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

All  the  refuse  grease  from  cooking,  butchering, 
etc.,  was  stored  through  the  winter,  as  well  as  wood- 
ashes  from  the  great  fireplaces.    The  first  operation 
was  to  make  the  lye,  to  "set  the  leach."  Many 
families  owned  a  strongly  made  leach-barrel ;  others 
made  a  sort  of  barrel  from  a  section  of  the  bark  of 
the  white  birch.    This  barrel  was  placed  on  bricks 
or  set  at  a  slight  angle  on  a  circular  groove  in  a  wood 
or  stone  base;  then  filled  with  ashes;  water  was 
poured  in  till  the  lye  trickled  or  leached  out  through 
an  outlet  cut  in  the  groove,  into  a  small  wooden  tub 
or  bucket.    The  water  and  ashes  were  frequently 
replenished  as  they  wasted,  and  the  lye  accumulated 
in  a  large  tub  or  kettle.    If  the  lye  was  not  strong 
enough,  it  was  poured  over  fresh  ashes.    An  old- 
time  receipt  says:  — 

"  The  great  Difficulty  in  making  Soap  come  is  the  want 
of  Judgment  of  the  Strength  of  the  Lye.  If  your  Lye 
will  bear  up  an  Egg  or  a  Potato  so  you  can  see  a  piece 
of  the  Surface  as  big  as  a  Ninepence  it  is  just  strong 
enough." 

The  grease  and  lye  were  then  boiled  together 
in  a  great  pot  over  a  fire  out  of  doors.  It  took 
about  six  bushels  of  ashes  and  twenty-four  pounds 
of  grease  to  make  a  barrel  of  soap.  The  soft  soap 
made  by  this  process  seemed  like  a  clean  jelly,  and 


(X 
ci 

o 
W 

ho 
c 


Girls'  Occupations 


255 


showed  no  trace  of  the  repulsive  grease  that  helped 
to  form  it.  A  hard  soap  also  was  made  with  the 
tallow  of  the  bayberry,  and  was  deemed  especially 
desirable  for  toilet  use.  But  little  hard  soap  was 
purchased,  even  in  city  homes. 

It  was  a  common  saying  :  "We  had  bad  luck  with 
our  soap,"  or  good  luck.  The  soap  was  always  care- 
fully stirred  one  way.  The  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch  " 
used  a  sassafras  stick  to  stir  it.  A  good  smart 
worker  could  make  a  barrel  of  soap  in  a  day,  and 
have  time  to  sit  and  rest  in  the  afternoon  and  talk 
her  luck  over,  before  getting  supper. 

This  soft  soap  was  used  in  the  great  monthly 
washings  which,  for  a  century  after  the  settlement 
of  the  colonies,  seem  to  have  been  the  custom. 
The  household  wash  was  allowed  to  accumulate,  and 
the  washing  done  once  a  month,  or  in  some  house- 
holds once  in  three  months. 

Thomas  Tusser's  rhymed  instructions  to  good 
housekeepers  as  to  the  washing  contain  chiefly  warn- 
ings to  the  housekeeper  against  thieves,  thus  :  — 

"  Dry  sun,  dry  wind, 
Safe  bind,  safe  find. 
Go  wash  well,  saith  summer,  with  sun  I  shall  dry; 
Go  wring  well,  saith  winter,  with  wind  so  shall  I. 
To  trust  without  heed  is  to  venture  a  joint, 
Give  tale  and  take  count  is  a  housewifely  point," 


256  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Abigail  Foote  wrote  of  making  a  broom  of 
Guinea  wheat.  This  was  not  broom-corn,  for  that 
useful  plant  was  not  grown  in  Connecticut  for  the 
purpose  of  broom-making  till  twenty  years  or  more 
after  she  wrote  her  diary.  Brooms  and  brushes 
were  made  of  it  in  Italy  nearly  two  centuries  ago. 
Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  ever  quick  to  use  and 
develop  anything  that  would  benefit  his  native 
country,  and  was  ever  ready  to  take  a  hint,  noted 
a  few  seeds  of  broom-corn  hanging  on  an  im- 
ported brush.  He  planted  these  seeds  and  raised 
some  of  the  corn  ;  and  Thomas  Jefferson  placed 
broom-corn  among  the  productions  of  Virginia  in 
178 1.  By  this  time  many  had  planted  it,  but  no 
systematic  plan  of  raising  broom-corn  abundantly 
for  the  manufacture  of  brooms  was  planned  till 
1798,  when  Levi  Dickenson,  a  Yankee  farmer  of 
Hadley,  Massachusetts,  planted  half  an  acre.  From 
this  he  made  between  one  and  two  hundred  brooms 
which  he  peddled  in  a  horse-cart  in  neighboring 
towns.  The  following  year  he  planted  an  acre;  and 
the  tall  broom-corn  with  its  spreading  panicles  at- 
tracted much  attention.  Though  he  was  thought 
visionary  when  he  predicted  that  broom  manufacture 
would  be  the  greatest  industry  in  the  county,  and 
though  he  was  sneeringly  told  that  only  Indians  ought 
to  make  brooms,  he  persevered ;  and  his  neighbors 


Girls'  Occupations 


finally  planted  and  made  brooms  also.  He  carried 
brooms  soon  to  Pittsfield,  to  New  London,  and  in 
1805  to  Albany  and  Boston.  So  rapid  was  the 
increase  of  manufacture  that  in  18 10  seventy  thou- 
sand brooms  were  made  in  the  county.  Since  then 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  have  gone  forth  from  the 
farms  and  villages  in  his  neighborhood. 

Mr.  Dickenson  at  first  scraped  the  seed  from  the 
brush  with  a  knife ;  then  he  used  a  sort  of  hoe ; 
then  a  coarse  comb  like  a  ripple-comb.  He  tied 
each  broom  by  hand,  with  the  help  of  a  negro  ser- 
vant. Much  of  this  work  could  be  done  by  little 
girls,  who  soon  gave  great  help  in  broom  manufact- 
ure ;  though  the  final  sewing  (when  the  needle  was 
pressed  through  with  a  leather  "palm"  such  as 
sailors  use)  had  to  be  done  by  the  strong  hands  of 
grown  women  and  men. 

Doubtless  Abigail  Foote  made  many  an  cc  Indian 
broom,"  as  well  as  her  brooms  of  Guinea  wheat, 
which  may  have  been  a  special  home  manufacture 
of  her  neighborhood;  for  many  fibres,  leaves,  and 
straws  were  used  locally  in  broom-making. 

Another  duty  of  the  women  of  the  old-time 
household  was  the  picking  of  domestic  geese. 
Geese  were  raised  for  their  feathers  more  than  as 
food.  In  some  towns  every  family  had  a  flock,  and 
their  clanking  was  heard  all  day  and  sometimes  all 


258  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

night.  They  roamed  the  streets  all  summer,  eating 
grass  by  the  highways  and  wallowing  in  the  puddles. 
Sometimes  they  were  yoked  with  a  goose-yoke 
made  of  a  shingle  with  a  hole  in  it.  In  midwinter 
they  were  kept  in  barnyards,  but  the  rest  of  the 
year  they  spent  the  night  in  the  street,  each  flock 
near  the  home  of  its  owner.  It  is  said  that  one  old 
goose  of  each  flock  always  kept  awake  and  stood 

watch ;  and  it  was 
told  in  Hadley, 
Massachusetts,  that 
if  a  young  man 
chanced  to  be  out 
late,  as  for  instance 
a-courting,  his  re- 
turn home  wakened 
the  geese  through- 
out the  village,  who 
sounded  the  un- 
seasonable hour  with 
a  terrible  clamor. 
They  made  so  much 
noise  on  summer 
Sundays  that  they 
Goose  Basket  seriously  disturbed 

church  services  ;  and  became  such  nuisances  that  at 
last  the  boys  killed  whole  flocks. 


Girls'  Occupations 


Goose-picking  was  cruel  work.  Three  or  four 
times  a  year  were  the  feathers  stripped  from  the 
live  birds.  A  stocking  was  pulled  over  the  bird's 
head  to  keep  it  from  biting.  Sometimes  the  head 
was  thrust  into  a  goose  basket.  The  pickers  had 
to  wear  old  clothes  and  tie  covers  over  the  hair,  as 
the  down  flew  everywhere.  The  quills,  used  for 
pens,  were  never  pulled  but  once  from  a  goose. 
Palladius,  On  Husbondrie,  written  in  the  fourth 
century,  and  Englished  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
tells  of  goose-picking  :  — 

"  Twice  a  yere  deplumed  may  they  be, 
In  spryngen  tyme  and  harvest  tyme." 

The  old  Latin  and  English  times  for  picking 
were  followed  in  the  New  World.  Among  the 
Dutch,  geese  were  everywhere  raised;  for  feather- 
beds  were,  if  possible,  more  desired  by  the  Dutch 
than  the  English. 

In  a  work  entitled  Good  Order  established  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  Jersey,  written  by  a  Quaker  in 
1685,  he  urges  that  schools  be  provided  where  girls 
could  be  instructed  in  "  the  spinning  of  flax,  sewing, 
and  making  all  sorts  of  useful  needle  work,  knitting 
of  gloves  and  stockings,  making  of  straw-works,  as 
hats,  baskets,  etc.,  or  any  other  useful  art  or  mys- 
tery."   It  was  a  century  before  his  "making  of 


260  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


straw-works "  was  carried  out,  not  till  larger  im- 
portations of  straw  hats  and  bonnets  came  to  this 
country. 

When  the  beautiful  and  intricate  straw  bonnets 
of  Italian  braid,  Genoese,  Leghorn,  and  others,  were 
brought  here,  they  were  too  costly  for  many  to  pur- 
chase ;  and  many  attempts,  especially  by  country- 
bred  girls,  were  made  to  plait  at  home  straw  braids 
to  imitate  these  envied  bonnets.  Many  towns 
claim  the  first  American  straw  bonnet ;  in  fact,  the 
attempts  were  almost  simultaneous.  To  Betsey 
Metcalf  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  is  usually 
accorded  the  honor  of  starting  the  straw-hat  busi- 
ness in  America.  The  earliest  recorded  effort  to 
manufacture  straw  head-wear  is  shown  in  a  patent 
given  to  Mrs.  Sibylla  Masters  of  Philadelphia,  for 
using  palmetto  and  straw  for  hats.  This  Mrs. 
Masters  was  the  first  American,  man  or  woman, 
ever  awarded  a  patent  in  England.  The  first  patent 
issued  by  the  United  States  to  a  woman  was  also 
for  an  invention  in  straw-plaiting.  A  Connecticut 
girl, 'Miss  Sophia  Woodhouse,  was  given  a  prize  for 
"  leghorn  hats  "  which  she  had  plaited  ;  and  she 
took  out  a  patent  in  1821  for  a  new  material  for 
bonnets.  It  was  the  stalks,  above  the  upper  joint, 
of  spear-grass  and  redtop  grass  growing  so  pro- 
fusely in  Weathersfield.     From  this  she  had  a 


Girls'  Occupations 


261 


national  reputation,  and  a  prize  of  twenty  guineas 
was  given  her  the  same  year  by  the  London  Society 
of  Arts.  The  wife  of  President  John  Quincy 
Adams  wore  one  of  these  bonnets,  to  the  great  pride 
of  her  husband. 

When  the  bonnet  was  braided  and  sewed  into 
shape,  it  had  to  be  bleached,  for  it  was  the  dark 
natural  straw.  I  don't  know  the  domestic  process 
in  general  use,  but  an  ingenious  family  of  sisters  in 
Newburyport  thus  accomplished  their  bleaching. 
They  bored  holes  in  the  head  of  a  barrel  ;  tied 
strings  to  each  new  bonnet ;  passed  the  strings 
through  the  holes  and  carefully  plugged  the  open- 
ings with  wood.  This  left  the  bonnets  hanging 
inside  the  barrel,  which  was  set  over  an  old-fashioned 
foot-stove  filled  with  hot  coals  on  which  sulphur 
had  been  placed.  The  fumes  of  the  burning  sul- 
phur arose  and  filled  the  barrel,  and  were  closely 
retained  by  quilts  wrapped  around  it.  When  the 
bonnets  were  taken  out,  they  were  clear  and  white. 
The  base  of  a  lignum-vitae  mortar  made  into  the 
proper  shape  with  layers  of  pasteboard  formed  the 
mould  on  which  the  bonnet  crown  was  pressed. 

Even  before  they  could  spin  girls  were  taught  to 
knit,  as  soon  as  their  little  hands  could  hold  the 
needles.  Sometimes  girls  four  years  of  age  could 
knit  stockings.    Boys  had  to  knit  their  own  sus- 


262  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


penders.  All  the  stockings  and  mittens  for  the 
family,  and  coarse  socks  and  mittens  for  sale,  were 
made  in  large  numbers.  Much  fine  knitting  was 
done,  with  many  intricate  and  elaborate  stitches  ; 
those  known  as  the  "  herring-bone  "  and  "  fox  and 
geese  "  were  great  favorites.  By  the  use  of  curious 
stitches  initials  could  be  knit  into  mittens  ;  and  it  is 
said  that  one  young  New  Hampshire  girl,  using  fine 
flaxen  yarn,  knit  the  whole  alphabet  and  a  verse  of 
poetry  into  a  pair  of  mittens  ;  which  I  think  must 
have  been  long-armed  mitts  for  ladies'  wear,  to  have 
space  enough  for  the  poetry. 

To  knit  a  pair  of  double  mittens  was  a  sharp  and 
long  day's  work.  Nancy  Peabody's  brother  of 
Shelburne,  New  Hampshire,  came  home  one  night 
and  said  he  had  lost  his  mittens  while  chopping  in 
the  woods.  Nancy  ran  to  a  bundle  of  wool  in  the 
garret,  carded  and  spun  a  big  hank  of  yarn  that 
night.  It  was  soaked  and  scoured  the  next  morn- 
ing, and  in  twenty-four  hours  from  the  time  the 
brother  announced  his  loss  he  had  a  fine  new  pair 
of  double  mittens.  A  pair  of  double  hooked  and 
pegged  mittens  would  last  for  years.  Pegging,  I 
am  told,  was  heavy  crocheting. 

An  elaborate  and  much-admired  form  of  knit- 
ting was  the  bead  bags  and  purses  which  were  so 
fashionable   in   the   early   years  of  this  century, 


Girls'  Occupations 


263 


though  I  have  seen  some  knitted  bags  of  colonial 
days. 

Great  variety  and  ingenuity  were  shown  in  these 
bags  and  purses.  Some  bore  landscapes  and  fig- 
ures ;  others  were  memorials  done  in  black  and 
white  and  purple  beads,  having  so-called  <c  mourn- 
ing designs/'  such  as  weeping  willows,  gravestones, 
urns,  etc.,  with  the  name  of  the  deceased  person 
and  date  of  death.  Beautiful  bags  were  knitted  to 
match  wedding-gowns.  Knitted  purses  were  a 
favorite  token  and  gift  from  fair  hands  to  husband 
or  lover.  Watch  chains  were  more  unusual;  they 
were  knit  in  a  geometrical  design,  were  about  a  yard 
long  and  about  three-eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 
One  I  saw  had  in  tiny  letters  in  gilt  beads  the  date 
and  the  words  "Remember  the  Giver."  In  all 
these  knitted  and  crocheted  bags  the  beads  had  to 
be  strung  by  a  rule  in  advance;  in  an  elaborate 
pattern  of  many  colors  it  may  easily  be  seen  that 
the  mistake  of  a  single  bead  in  the  stringing  would 
spoil  the  entire  design.  They  were  therefore  never 
a  cheap  form  of  decorative  work.  Five  dollars  was 
often  paid  for  knitting  a  single  bag.  A  varied 
group  from  the  collection  of  Mr.  J.  Howard  Swift 
of  Chicago  is  here  shown. 

Netting  was  another  decorative  handiwork.  Netted 
fringes  for  edging  the  coverlets,  curtains,  testers,  and 


264  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


valances  of  high-post  bedsteads  were  usually  made 
of  cotton  thread  or  twine,  and  when  tufted  or  tas- 
selled  were  a  pretty  finish.  A  finer  silk  or  cotton 
netting  was  used  for  trimming  sacks  and  petti- 
coats. A  letter  written  by  Mrs.  Carrington  from 
Mount  Vernon  in  1799  says  of  Mrs.  President 
Washington :  — 

"  Her  netting  is  a  source  of  great  amusement  to  her  and 
is  so  neatly  done  that  all  the  younger  part  of  the  family  are 
proud  of  trimming  their  dresses  with  it,  and  have  furnished 
me  with  a  whole  suit  so  that  I  shall  appear  c  a  la  domes- 
tique '  at  the  first  party  we  have  when  I  get  home." 

Netted  purses  and  work-bags  also  were  made 
similar  to  the  knitted  ones.  A  homelier  and  heav- 
ier netting  of  twine  was  often  done  at  home  for  small 
fishing-nets. 

Previous  to  the  Revolution  there  was  a  boarding- 
school  kept  in  Philadelphia  in  Second  Street  near 
Walnut,  by  a  Mrs.  Sarah  Wilson.  She  thus  ad- 
vertised:— 

"  Young  ladies  may  be  educated  in  a  genteel  manner, 
and  pains  taken  to  teach  them  in  regard  to  their  behaviour, 
on  reasonable  terms.  They  may  be  taught  all  sorts  fine 
needlework,  viz.,  working  on  catgut  or  flowering  muslin, 
sattin  stitch,  quince  stitch,  tent  stitch,  cross-stitch,  open 
work,  tambour,  embroidering  curtains  or  chairs,  writing  and 
cyphering.    Likewise  waxwork  in  all  its  several  branches, 


Knitted  Bags 


4 


Girls'  Occupations 


265 


never  as  yet  particularly  taught  here;  also  how  to  take 
profiles  in  wax,  to  make  wax  flowers  and  fruits  and  pin- 
baskets." 

There  was  no  limit  to  the  beauty  and  delicacy  of 
the  embroidery  of  those  days.  I  have  seen  the 
beautiful  needlework  cap  and  skirt  worn  by  Gov- 
ernor Thomas  Johnson  of  Maryland,  when  he  was 
christened.  The  coat  of  arms  of  both  the  Lux  and 
Johnson  families,  the  name  Agnes  Lux  and  Anne 
Johnson,  and  the  words  "God  bless  the  Babe" 
are  embroidered  upon  them  in  most  delicate  fairy 
stitches.  The  babe  grew  up  to  be  the  governor  of 
his  state  in  Revolutionary  times. 

In  an  old  book  printed  in  1821,  a  set  of  rules  is 
given  for  teaching  needlework,  and  it  is  doubtless 
exactly  what  had  been  the  method  for  a  century. 
The  girls  were  first  shown  how  to  turn  a  hem  on  a 
piece  of  waste  paper;  then  they  proceeded  to  the 
various  stitches  in  this  order:  to  hem,  to  sew  and 
fell  a  seam,  to  draw  threads  and  hemstitch,  to  gather 
and  sew  on  gathers,  to  make  buttonholes,  to  sew  on 
buttons,  to  do  herring-bone  stitch,  to  darn,  to  mark, 
to  tuck,  whip,  and  sew  on  a  frill.  There  is  also  a 
long  and  tedious  set  of  questions  and  answers  like  a 
catechism,  explaining  the  various  stitches. 

There  was  one  piece  of  needlework  which  was 
done  by  every  little  girl  who  was  carefully  brought 


266  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

up  :  she  sewed  a  sampler.    These  were  worked  in 

various  beautiful  and  difficult  stitches 
in  colored  silks  and  wool  on  a  strong, 
loosely  woven  canvas. 

In  English  collections,  the  oblong 
samplers,  long  and  narrow,  are  as  a 
rule  older  than  the  square  samplers  ; 
and  it  is  safe  to  believe  the  same  of 
American  samplers.  Fortunately, 
many  of  them  are  dated,  but  this  an- 
cient one  from  the  Quincy  family  has 
no  date.  The  oldest  sampler  I  have 
ever  seen  is  in  the  collection  of  antique 
articles  now  in  Pilgrim  Hall  at  Ply- 
mouth. It  was  made  by  a  daughter 
of  the  Pilgrims.  The  verse  embroid- 
ered on  it  reads  :  — 

"  Lorea  Standish  is  My  Name. 

Lord  Guide  my  Heart  that  I  may  do  thy  Will, 
And  fill  my  Hands  with  such  convenient  skill 
As  will  conduce  to  Virtue  void  of  Shame, 
And  I  will  give  the  Glory  to  thy  Name." 

Similar  verses,  and  portions  of  hymns,  are  often 
found  on  these  samplers.  A  favorite  rhyme  was  :  — 

"  When  I  was  young  and  in  my  Prime, 
You  see  how  well  I  spent  my  Time. 


Fieetwood-Quincy 
Sampler 


Embroidered  Coat  of  Arms 


Girls'  Occupations 


267 


And  by  my  sampler  you  may  see 
What  care  my  Parents  took  of  me." 

A  very  spirited  verse  is  :  — 

"  You'll  mend  your  life  to-morrow  still  you  cry. 
In  what  far  Country  does  To-morrow  lie  ? 
It  stays  so  long,  is  fetch'd  so  far,  I  fear 
'Twill  prove  both  very  old,  and  very  dear." 

Strange  trees  and  fruits  and  birds  and  beasts, 
wonderful  vines  and  flowers,  were  embroidered  on 
these  domestic  tapestries. 

In  the  hands  of  a  skilful  worker,  the  sampler 
might  become  a  thing  of  beauty  and  historical  in- 
terest ;  and  the  stitches  learned  and  practised  on  it 
might  be  used  on  more  ambitious  pieces  of  work, 
which  often  took  the  shape  of  the  family  coat  of 
arms.  Such  was  the  work  of  Mary  Salter  (Mrs. 
Henry  Quincy),  who  was  born  in  1726,  and  died  in 
1755.  It  is  the  arms  of  Salter  and  Bryan  party  per 
pale  upon  a  shield.  Rich  in  embossed  work  in  gold 
and  silver  thread,  it  is  a  beautiful  testimonial  to  the 
deft  and  proficient  hand  of  the  young  needlewoman 
who  embroidered  it. 

Sometimes  pretentious  pictures  representing 
events  in  public  or  family  history,  were  embroid- 
ered in  crewels  on  sampler  linen.  The  largest  and 
funniest  one  I  have  ever  seen  was  the  boarding- 


268  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


school  climax  of  glory  of  Miss  Hannah  Otis, 
sister  of  the  patriot  James  Otis.  It  is  a  view  of 
the  Hancock  House,  Boston  Common,  and  vicinity, 
as  they  appeared  from  1755  to  1760.  Across  its 
expanse  Governor  Hancock  rides  triumphantly ; 
and  the  fair  maid  looking  over  the  garden  wall 
at  the  Charles  River  is  Dorothy  Quincy,  afterwards 
Madam  Hancock.  This  triumph  of  school-girl 
affection  and  needle-craft,  wholly  devoid  of  per- 
spective or  proportion,  made  a  great  sensation 
in  Boston,  in  its  day. 

Another  large  piece  of  similar  work  is  here  repre- 
sented. The  original  is  in  the  library  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester,  Massa- 
chusetts. It  is  a  view  of  the  Old  South  Church, 
Boston  ;  and  with  its  hooped  dames  and  coach  and 
footman,  has  a  certain  value  as  indicating  the  cos- 
tume of  the  times.    It  is  dated  1756. 

Familiar  to  the  descendants  of  old  New  England 
families,  are  the  embroidered  mourning  pieces. 
These  are  seldom  more  than  a  century  old.  On 
them  weeping  willows  and  urns,  tombs  and  mourn- 
ing figures,  names  of  departed  friends  with  dates  of 
their  deaths,  and  epitaphs  were  worked  with  vast 
skill,  and  were  so  much  admired  and  were  such  a 
delightful  home  decoration,  that  it  is  no  unusual 
thing  to  find  these  elaborate  memento  moris  with 


* 


Colonial  Embroidery,  Old  South  Church. 


Boston 


Girls'  Occupations 


269 


empty  spaces  for  names  and  dates,  waiting  for  some 
one  to  die,  and  still  unfilled,  unfinished,  blankly 
commemorative  of  no  one,  while  the  industrious 
embroiderer  has  long  since  gone  to  the  tomb  she 
so  deftly  and  eagerly  pictured,  and  her  name,  too,  is 
forgotten. 

Tambour  work  was  a  favorite  form  of  embroid- 
ery. In  1788  Madam  Hesselius  wrote  thus  in  jest 
of  her  daughter,  a  Philadelphia  miss  :  — 

"  To  tambour  on  crape  she  has  a  great  passion, 
Because  here  of  late  it  has  been  much  the  fashion. 
The  shades  are  dis-sorted,  the  spangles  are  scattered 
And  for  want  of  due  care  the  crape  has  got  tattered." 

Tambouring  with  various  stitches  on  different 
kinds  of  net  made  pretty  laces ;  and  these  were 
apparently  the  laces  usually  worked  and  worn.  In 
the  form  of  rich  veils  and  collars  scores  of  intricate 
and  beautiful  stitches  were  used,  and  exquisite  arti- 
cles of  wear  were  manufactured. 

A  strip  of  net  footing  pinned  and  sewn  to  paper, 
with  reels  of  fine  linen  thread  and  threaded  needle 
attached,  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration 
just  as  it  was  left  by  the  deft  and  industrious  hands 
that  have  been  folded  for  a  century  in  the  dust. 
The  pattern  and  stitches  in  this  design  are  simple ; 
the  design  was  first  pricked  in  outline  with  a  pin, 


270  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


then  worked  in.  Other  stitches  and  patterns,  none 
of  them  the  most  elaborate  and  difficult,  are  shown 
in  the  infant's  cap  and  collars,  and  the  strips  of 
lace  and  "  modesty-piece. " 

In   the   seventeenth   century  lace-making  with 


Net  Footing  and  Lace 


bobbins,  was  taught;  it  is  referred  to  in  Judge 
Sewall's  diary ;  and  a  friend  has  shown  me  the 
cushion  and  bobbins  used  by  her  far-away  grand- 
mother who  learned  the  various  stitches  in  London 
at  a  guinea  a  stitch. 

The  feminine  love  of  color,  the  longing  for  deco- 
ration, as  well  as  pride  in  skill  of  needle-craft,  found 
riotous  expansion  in  quilt-piecing.    A  thrifty  econ- 


Girls'  Occupations 


271 


omy,  too,  a  desire  to  use  up  all  the  fragments  and 
bits  of  stuffs  which  were  necessarily  cut  out  in  the 
shaping,  chiefly  of  women's  and  children's  gar- 
ments, helped  to  make  the  patchwork  a  satisfaction. 
The  amount  of  labor,  of  careful  fitting,  neat  piecing, 
and  elaborate  quilting,  the  thousands  of  stitches  that 
went  into  one  of  these  patchwork  quilts,  are  to-day 


Collars,  Caps,  Laces,  and  "Modesty-piece" 


almost  painful  to  regard.  Women  revelled  in  in- 
tricate and  difficult  patchwork ;  they  eagerly  ex- 
changed patterns  with  one  another;  they  talked  over 
the  designs,  and  admired  pretty  bits  of  calico,  and 
pondered  what  combinations  to  make,  with  far  more 
zest  than  women  ever  discuss  art  or  examine  high 
art  specimens  together  to-day.  There  was  one 
satisfactory  condition  in  the  work,  and  that  was  the 


272  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


quality  of  the  cottons  and  linens  of  which  the  patch- 
work was  made.  They  were  none  of  the  slimsy, 
composition-filled,  aniline-dyed  calicoes  of  to-day. 
A  piece  of  "  chaney,"  "  patch,"  or  "  copper-plate  " 
a  hundred  years  old  will  be  as  fresh  to-day  as  when 
woven.  Real  India  chintzes  and  palampours  are 
found  in  these  quilts,  beautiful  and  artistic  stuffs, 
and  the  firm,  unyielding,  high-priced,  "real  "  French 
calicoes. 

A  sense  of  the  idealization  of  quilt-piecing  is  given 
also  by  the  quaint  descriptive  names  applied  to  the 
various  patterns.  Of  those  the  "  Rising-sun," 
"Log  Cabin,"  and  "Job's  Trouble"  are  perhaps 
the  most  familiar.  "Job's  Trouble"  was  simply 
honeycomb  or  hexagonal  blocks.  "  To  set  a  Job's 
Trouble,"  was  to  cut  out  an  exact  hexagon  for  a 
pattern  (preferably  from  tin,  otherwise  from  firm 
cardboard) ;  to  cut  out  from  this  many  hexagons 
in  stiff  brown  paper  or  letter  paper.  These  were 
covered  with  the  bits  of  calico  with  the  edges  turned 
under ;  the  sides  were  sewed  carefully  together  over 
and  over,  till  a  firm  expanse  permitted  the  removal 
of  the  papers. 

The  name  of  the  pattern  seldom  gave  an  expres- 
sion of  its  character.  "  Dove  in  the  Window," 
"  Rob  Peter  to  Pay  Paul,"  "  Blue  Brigade,"  "  Fan- 
mill,"  "  Crow's  Foot,"  "  Chinese  Puzzle,"  "  Fly- 


Girls'  Occupations  273 

wheel/1  <c  Love-knot/'  "  Sugar-bowl,"  are  simply 
whims  of  fancy.  Floral  names,  such  as  "  Dutch 
Tulip/'  "  Sunflower/'  "  Rose  of  Sharon/'  "  Blue- 
bells/' "  World's  Rose/'  might  suggest  a  love  of 
flowers.  Sometimes  designs  are  appliqued  on  with 
some  regard  for  coloring.  I  once  saw  a  quilt  that 
was  a  miracle  of  tedious  work.  The  squares  of 
white  cotton  each  held  a  slender  stem  with  two 
leaves  of  green  or  light  brown  calico,  surmounted 
by  a  four-petalled  flower  of  high-colored  calico, — 
pink,  red,  blue,  etc.  This  design  was  all  carefully 
hemmed  down.   The  effect  was  surprisingly  Oriental. 

When  the  patchwork  was  completed,  it  was  laid 
flatly  on  the  lining  (often  another  expanse  of  patch- 
work), with  layers  of  wool  or  cotton  wadding 
between,  and  the  edges  were  basted  all  around. 
Four  bars  of  wood,  about  ten  feet  long,  "the 
quiltin'-frame,"  were  placed  at  the  four  edges,  the 
quilt  was  sewed  to  them  with  stout  thread,  the  bars 
crossed  and  tied  firmly  at  corners,  and  the  whole 
raised  on  chairs  or  tables  to  a  convenient  height. 
Thus  around  the  outstretched  quilt  a  dozen  quilters 
could  sit  running  the  whole  together  with  fanciful 
set  designs  of  stitching.  When  about  a  foot  on 
either  side  was  wholly  quilted,  it  was  rolled  upon 
its  bar,  and  the  work  went  on  ;  thus  the  visible 
quilt  diminished,  like  Balzac's  Peau  de  Chagrin, 

T 


274  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

• 

in  a  united  and  truly  sociable  work  that  required 
no  special  attention,  in  which  all  were  facing  to- 
gether and  all  drawing  closer  together  as  the  after- 
noon passed  in  intimate  gossip.  Sometimes  several 
quilts  were  set  up.  I  know  of  a  ten  days'  quilting- 
bee  in  Narragansett  in  1752. 

In  early  days  calicoes  were  not  common,  but 
every  one  had  woollen  garments  and  pieces,  and  the 
quilts  made  of  these  were  of  grateful  warmth  in 
bleak  New  England.  All  kinds  of  commonplace 
garments  and  remnants  of  decayed  gentility  were 
pressed  into  service  in  these  quilts :  portions  of 
the  moth-eaten  and  discarded  uniforms  of  militia- 
men, worn-out  flannel  sheets  dyed  with  some  bril- 
liant home-dye,  old  coat  and  cloak  linings,  well-worn 
petticoats.  A  magnificent  scarlet  cloak  worn  by  a 
lord  mayor  of  London  and  brought  to  America 
by  a  member  of  the  Merritt  family  of  Salisbury, 
Massachusetts,  went  through  a  series  of  advent- 
ures and  migrations,  and  ended  its  days  as  small 
bits  of  vivid  color  casting  a  grateful  glory  and 
variety  on  a  patchwork  quilt  in  the  Saco  valley  of 
Maine.  To  this  dav  at  vendues  or  sales  of  old 
country  households  in  New  England,  there  will  be 
handed  out  great  rolls  of  woollen  pieces  to  be  used 
for  patchwork  quilts  or  rag  carpets,  and  they  find 
purchasers. 


Girls'  Occupations  275 

These  woollen  quilts  had  a  thin  wadding,  and 
were  usually  very  closely  quilted,  so  they  were  quite 
flat.  They  were  called  "  pressed  quilts."  An  old 
farm  wife  said  to  me  in  New  Hampshire,  "  Girls 
won't  take  the  trouble  to  make  pressed  quilts  now- 
adays, it's  as  much  as  they'll  do  to  tack  a  puff," 
that  is,  make  a  light  quilt  with  thick  wadding  only 
tacked  together  from  front  to  back,  at  regular  inter- 
vals. A  pressed  quilt  which  I  saw  was  quilted  in 
inch  squares.  Another  had  a  fan-pattern  with  sun- 
flower leaf  border ;  another  was  quilted  in  the  elab- 
orate pattern  known  as  "  feather-work." 

As  much  ingenuity  was  exercised  in  the  design 
of  the  quilting  as  in  the  pattern  of  the  patchwork, 
and  the  marking  for  the  quilt  design  was  exceed- 
ingly tedious,  since,  of  course,  no  drawings  could  be 
used.  I  remember  seeing  one  quilt  marked  by 
chalking  strings  which  were  stretched  tightly  across 
at  the  desired  intervals,  and  held  up  and  snapped 
smartly  down  on  the  quilt,  leaving  a  faint  chalky 
line  to  guide  the  eye  and  needle.  Another  simple 
design  was  to  quilt  in  rounds,  using  a  saucer  or 
plate  to  form  a  perfect  circle. 

The  most  elaborate  quilt  I  know  of  is  of  silk 
containing  portions  of  the  wedding-dress  of  Esther 
Powel,  granddaughter  of  Gabriel  Bernon ;  she  was 
married  to  James  Helme  in   1738.    When  her 


276  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


granddaughter  was  married  in  1795,  the  quilt  was 
still  unfinished,  and  a  woman  was  hired  who  worked 
on  it  for  six  months,  putting  a  miracle  of  fine 
stitches  in  the  quilting.  I  think  she  must  have 
been  very  old  and  very  slow,  for  the  wages  paid 
her  were  but  twenty  cents  a  week  and  "  her  keep," 
which  was  very  small  pay  even  in  that  day  of  small 
wages.  When  Washington  came  to  Newport,  this 
splendid  quilt  was  sent  to  grace  the  bed  upon  which 
the  hero  slept. 

I  said  a  few  summers  ago  to  a  farmer's  wife  who 
lived  on  the  outskirts  of  a  small  New  England 
hill-village:  "Your  home  is  very  beautiful.  From 
every  window  the  view  is  perfect."  She  answered 
quickly :  "  Yes,  but  it's  awful  lonely  for  me,  for  I 
was  born  in  Worcester ;  still  I  don't  mind  as  long 
as  we  have  plenty  of  quiltings."  In  answer  to 
my  questions  she  told  me  that  the  previous  win- 
ter she  had  "  kept  count,"  and  she  had  helped  at 
twenty-eight  "regular"  quiltings,  besides  her  own 
home  patchwork  and  quilt-making,  and  much  in- 
formal help  of  neighbors  on  plain  quilts.  Any 
one  who  has  attended  a  county  fair  (one  not  too 
modernized  and  spoiled)  and  seen  the  display  of 
intricate  patchwork  and  quilting  still  made  in  coun- 
try homes,  can  see  that  it  is  not  an  obsolete  accom- 
plishment. 


Girls'  Occupations 


277 


A  form  of  decorative  work  in  which  many  women 
took  great  delight  and  became  astonishingly  skilful 
was  what  was  known,  or  at  any  rate  advertised,  by 
the  ambitious  title  of  Papyrotamia.  It  was  simply 
the  cutting  out  of  stiff  paper  of  various  decorative 
and  ornamental  designs  with  scissors.  At  the  time  of 
the  Revolution  it  was  evidently  deemed  a  very  high 
accomplishment,  and  the  best  pieces  of  work  were 
carefully  cherished,  mounted  on  black  paper,  framed 
and  glazed,  and  given  to  friends  or  bequeathed  by 
will.  One  old  lady  is  remembered  as  using  her 
scissors  with  extraordinary  deftness,  and  amusing 
herself  and  delighting  her  friends  by  occupying  the 
hours  of  every  afternoon  visit  with  cutting  out  en- 
tirely by  her  trained  eye  various  pretty  and  curious 
designs.  Valentines  in  exceedingly  delicate  and 
appropriate  patterns,  wreaths  and  baskets  of  varied 
flowers,  marine  views,  religious  symbols,  landscapes, 
all  were  accomplished.  Coats  of  arms  and  escutch- 
eons cut  in  black  paper  and  mounted  on  white  were 
highly  prized.  Portrait  silhouettes  were  cut  with 
the  aid  of  a  machine  which  marked  and  reduced 
mechanically  a  sharp  shadow  cast  by  the  sitter's 
profile  through  candle-light  on  a  sheet  of  white 
paper.  Mrs.  Lydia  H.  Sigourney  wrote  in  rhyme 
of  a  revered  friend  of  her  youth,  Mrs.  Lathrop,  of 
a  period  about  a  century  ago  :  — 


278  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


"  Thy  dextrous  scissors  ready  to  produce 
The  flying  squirrel  or  the  long-neck'd  goose, 
Or  dancing  girls  with  hands  together  join'd, 
Or  tall  spruce-trees  with  wreaths  of  roses  twin'd, 
The  well-dress'd  dolls  whose  paper  form  display'd, 
Thy  penknife's  labor  and  thy  pencil's  shade." 

I  once  found  in  an  old  lacquered  box  in  a  cup- 
board a  paper  packet  containing  all  the  cut-paper 
designs  mentioned  in  this  rhyme  —  and  many  more. 
The  workmanship  of  the  "  spruce-trees  with  wreaths 
of  roses  twin'd  "  was  specially  marvellous.  I  plainly 
saw  in  that  design  a  derivative  of  the  English  May- 
pole and  encircling  wreaths.  This  package  was 
marked  with  the  name  of  the  paper-cutter,  a  Revo- 
lutionary dame  who  died  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century.  Her  home  was  remote  from  the  Nor- 
wich home  of  Mrs.  Lathrop,  and  I  know  she  never 
visited  in  Connecticut,  yet  she  made  precisely  the 
same  designs  and  indeed  ^11  the  designs.  This  is 
but  a  petty  proof  among  many  other  more  decided 
ones  of  the  fact  that  even  in  those  days  of  scant 
communication  and  infrequent  and  contracted  travel, 
there  were  as  in  our  own  times  waves  of  feminine 
fancy  work,  of  attempts  at  artistic  expression,  which 
flooded  every  home,  and  receding,  left  behind  much 
decorative  silt  of  varying  but  nearly  universal  use- 
lessness  and  laborious  commonplaceness. 


Girls'  Occupations 


One  of  the  cut-paper  landscapes  of  Madam  Dem- 
ing,  a  Boston  lady  who  was  a  famous  "  papyrota- 
mist,"  is  here  shown.    It  is  now  owned  by  James  F. 


Cut-paper  Picture 


Trott,  Esq.,  of  Niagara  Falls.  It  is  a  view  of  Bos- 
ton streets  just  previous  to  the  Revolution.  In 
that  handsome  volume,  the  Ten  Broeck  Genealogical 
Record,  are  reproductions  of  some  of  the  landscape 
views  by  Albertina  Ten  Broeck  at  the  same  date. 


280  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


They  show  the  house  and  farm  surroundings  of  the 
old  Ten  Broeck  "  Bouwerie,"  the  ancestral  home  in 
New  York,  and  give  a  wonderfully  good  idea  of  it. 
These  are  not  in  dead  silhouette,  for  an  appearance 
of  shading  is  afforded  by  finely  cut  lines  and  inter- 
vening spaces.  The  highest  form  of  cut-paper 
reproduction  and  decoration  ever  reached  was  by 
the  English  woman,  Mrs.  Delaney,  who  died  in 
1788,  the  friend  of  the  Duchess  of  Portland,  and 
intimate  of  George  III.  and  his  queen.  She  repro- 
duced in  colored  paper,  in  what  she  called  "  paper 
mosaics,"  the  entire  flora  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  it  is  said  it  was  impossible  at  first  sight  to  dis- 
tinguish these  flowers  from  the  real  ones. 


CHAPTER  XII 


DRESS   OF  THE  COLONISTS 

AT  the  time  America  was  settled,  rich  dress 
was  almost  universal  in  Europe  among  per- 
*  sons  of  any  wealth  or  station.  The  dress 
of  plain  people  also,  such  as  yeomen  and  small 
farmers  and  work-people,  was  plentiful  and  substan- 
tial, and  even  peasants  had  good  and  ample  clothing. 
Materials  were  strongly  and  honestly  made,  clothing 
was  sewed  by  hand,  and  lasted  long.  The  fashions 
did  not  change  from  year  to  year,  and  the  rich  or 
stout  clothes  of  one  generation  were  bequeathed  by 
will  and  worn  by  a  second  and  even  a  third  and 
fourth  generation. 

In  England  extravagance  in  dress  in  court  circles, 
and  grotesqueness  in  dress  among  all  educated  folk, 
had  become  abhorrent  to  that  class  of  persons  who 
were  called  Puritans ;  and  as  an  expression  of  their 
dislike  they  wore  plainer  garments,  and  cut  off  their 
flowing  locks,  and  soon  were  called  Roundheads. 
The  Massachusetts  settlers  who  were  Puritans  de- 
termined to  discourage  extravagance  in  dress  in  the 
New  World,  and  attempted  to  control  the  fashions. 

281 


282  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  Massachusetts  magistrates  were  reminded  of 
their  duties  in  this  direction  by  sanctimonious  spur- 
ring from  gentlemen  and  ministers  in  England.  One 
such  meddler  wrote  to  Governor  Winthrop  in  1636  : 
"  Many  in  your  plantacions  discover  too  much 
pride."  Another  stern  moralist  reproved  the  colo- 
nists for  writing  to  England  "  for  cut  work  coifes, 
for  deep  stammel  dyes,"  to  be  sent  to  them  in 
America.  Others,  prohibited  from  wearing  broad 
laces,  were  criticised  for  ordering  narrow  ones,  for 
"  going  as  farr  as  they  may." 

In  1634  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  passed 
restricting  sumptuary  laws.  These  laws  forbade  the 
purchase  of  woollen,  silk,  or  linen  garments,  with 
silver,  gold,  silk,  or  thread  lace  on  them.  Two 
years  later  a  narrow  binding  of  lace  was  permitted 
on  linen  garments.  The  colonists  were  ordered 
not  to  make  or  buy  any  slashed  clothes,  except 
those  with  one  slash  in  each  sleeve  and  another 
slash  in  the  back.  "  Cut  works,  imbroidd  or  needle 
or  capps  bands  &  rayles,"  and  gold  or  silver  gir- 
dles, hat-bands,  belts,  ruffs,  and  beaver  hats  were 
forbidden.  Liberty  was  thriftily  given,  however,  to 
the  colonists  to  wear  out  any  garments  they  chanced 
to  have  unless  in  the  form  of  inordinately  slashed 
apparel,  immoderate  great  sleeves  and  rails,  and  long 
wings,  which  could  not  possibly  be  endured. 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


In  1639  men,s  attire  was  approached  and  scanned, 
and  "immoderate  great  breeches''  were  tabooed; 
also  broad  shoulder-bands,  double  ruffles  and  capes, 
and  silk  roses,  which  latter  adornment  were  worn 
on  the  shoes. 

In  1 65 1  the  Court  again  expressed  its  "utter 
detestation  that  men  and  women  of  meane  condi- 
tion, education,  and  calling,  should  take  vppon  them 
the  garbe  of  gentlemen  by  wearinge  of  gold  or  silver 
lace,  or  buttons  or  poynts  at  their  knees,  or  walke  in 
great  boots,  or  women  of  the  same  ranke  to  wear 
silke  or  tiffany  hoods  or  scarfs." 

Many  persons  were  "presented"  under  this  law, 
men  boot-wearers  as  well  as  women  hood-wearers. 
In  Salem,  in  1652,  a  man  was  presented  for  "excess 
in  bootes,  ribonds,  gould  and  silver  lace." 

In  Newbury,  in  1653,  two  women  were  brought 
up  for  wearing  silk  hoods  and  scarfs,  but  they  were 
discharged  on  proof  that  their  husbands  were 
worth  £200  each.  In  Northampton,  in  the  year 
1676,  a  wholesale  attempt  was  made  by  the  magis- 
trates to  abolish  "  wicked  apparell."  Thirty-eight 
women  of  the  Connecticut  valley  were  presented 
at  one  time  for  various  degrees  of  finery,  and 
as  of  too  small  estate  to  wear  silk.  A  young  girl 
named  Hannah  Lyman  was  presented  for  "  wearing 
silk  in  a  fflaunting  manner,  in  an  offensive  way  and 


284  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


garb  not  only  before  but  when  she  stood  presented/' 
Thirty  young  men  were  also  presented  for  silk- 
wearing,  long  hair,  and  other  extravagances.  The 
calm  flaunting  of  her  silk  in  the  very  eyes  of  the 
Court  by  sixteen-year-old  Hannah  was  premonitory 
of  the  waning  power  of  the  magistrates,  for  similar 
prosecutions  at  a  later  date  were  quashed.  By  1682 
the  tables  were  turned  and  we  find  the  Court  ar- 
raigning the  selectmen  of  five  towns  for  not  prose- 
cuting offenders  against  these  laws  as  in  previous 
years.  In  1675  ^e  town  of  Dedham  had  been 
similarly  warned  and  threatened,  but  apparently  was 
never  prosecuted.  Connecticut  called  to  its  aid  in 
repressing  extravagant  dress  the  economic  power  of 
taxation  by  ordering  that  whoever  wore  gold  or 
silver  lace,  gold  or  silver  buttons,  silk  ribbons,  silk 
scarfs,  or  bone  lace  worth  over  three  shillings  a  yard 
should  be  taxed  as  worth  X15°- 

Virginia  fussed  a  little  over  "  excess  in  cloathes." 
Sir  Francis  Wyatt  was  enjoined  not  to  permit  any 
but  the  Council  and  the  heads  of  Hundreds  to  wear 
gold  on  their  clothes,  or  to  wear  silk  till  they  made 
it  —  which  was  intended  more  to  encourage  silk- 
making  than  to  discourage  silk-wearing.  And  it 
provided  that  unmarried  men  should  be  assessed 
according  to  their  apparel,  and  married  men  accord- 
ing to  that  of  their  family.     In   1660  Virginia 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


285 


colonists  were  ordered  to  import  no  "  silke  stuffe  in 
garments  or  in  peeces  except  for  whoods  and  scarfs, 
nor  silver  or  gold  lace,  nor  bone  lace  of  silk  or 
threads,  nor  ribbands  wrought  with  gold  or  silver  in 
them." 

The  ministers  did  not  fail  in  their  duty  in  at- 
tempting to  march  with  the  magistrates  in  the  re- 
striction and  simplification  of  dress.  They  preached 
often  against  "intolerable  pride  in  clothes  and  hair." 
Even  when  the  Pilgrims  were  in  Holland  the 
preachers  had  been  deeply  disturbed  over  the  dress 
of  their  minister's  wife,  Madam  Johnson,  who  wore 
"  lawn  coives  "  and  busks,  and  a  velvet  hood,  and 
"  whalebones  in  her  petticoat  bodice,"  and  worst  of 
all,  "a  topish  hat."  One  of  the  earliest  interferences 
of  Roger  Williams  was  when  he  instructed  the 
women  of  Salem  parish  always  to  wear  veils  in  pub- 
lic. But  John  Cotton  preached  to  them  the  next 
Sunday,  and  he  proved  to  the  dames  and  goodwives 
that  veils  were  a  sign  and  symbol  of  undue  subjec- 
tion to  their  husbands,  and  Salem  women  soon 
proved  their  rights  by  coming  barefaced  to  meeting. 

Mr.  Davenport  preached  about  men's  head-gear, 
that  men  must  take  off  their  hats,  and  stand  up  at 
the  announcement  of  the  text.  And  if  New  Haven 
men  wore  their  hats  in  meeting,  I  can't  see  why  they 
fussed  so  over  the  Quakers'  broadbrims. 


286  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


After  a  while  the  whole  church  interfered.  In 
1769  the  church  at  Andover  put  it  to  vote  whether 
"  the  parish  Disapprove  of  the  female  sex  sitting 
with  their  Hats  on  in  the  Meeting-house  in  time  of 
Divine  Service  as  being  Indecent."  In  the  town 
of  Abington,  in  1775,  it  was  voted  that  it  was  "an 
indecent  way  that  the  female  sex  do  sit  with  their 
hats  and  bonnets  on  to  worship  God."  Still  another 
town  voted  that  it  was  the  "  Town's  Mind  "  that 
the  women  should  take  their  bonnets  off  in  meeting 
and  hang  them  "  on  the  peggs."  We  do  not  know 
positively,  but  I  suspect  that  the  bonnets  continued 
to  grace  the  heads  instead  of  the  pegs  in  Andover, 
Abington,  and  other  towns. 

To  know  how  the  colonists  were  dressed,  we  have 
to  learn  from  the  lists  of  their  clothing  which  they 
left  by  will,  which  lists  are  still  preserved  in  court 
records ;  from  the  inventories  of  the  garments  fur- 
nished to  each  settler  who  came  by  contract ;  from 
the  orders  sent  back  to  England  for  new  clothing  ; 
from  a  few  crude  portraits,  and  from  some  articles 
of  ancient  clothing  which  are  still  preserved. 

When  Salem  was  settled  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company  furnished  clothes  to  all  the  men  who 
emigrated  and  settled  that  town.  Every  man  had 
four  pairs  of  shoes,  four  pairs  of  stockings,  a  pair  of 
Norwich  garters,  four  shirts,  two  suits  of  doublet 


Eighteenth-century  Stays 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


287 


and  hose  of  leather  lined  with  oiled  skin,  a  woollen 
suit  lined  with  leather,  four  bands,  two  handker- 
chiefs, a  green  cotton  waistcoat,  a  leather  belt,  a 
woollen  cap,  a  black  hat,  two  red  knit  caps,  two  pairs 
of  gloves,  a  mandillion  or  cloak  lined  with  cotton, 
and  an  extra  pair  of  breeches.  Little  boys  just  as 
soon  as  they  could  walk  wore  clothes  made  pre- 
cisely like  their  fathers' :  doublets  which  were  warm 
double  jackets,  leather  knee-breeches,  leather  belts, 
knit  caps.  The  outfit  for  the  Virginia  planters  was 
not  so  liberal,  for  the  company  was  not  so  wealthy. 
It  was  called  a  "  Particular  of  Apparell."  It  had 
only  three  bands,  three  pairs  stockings,  and  three 
shirts  instead  of  four.  The  suits  were  of  canvas, 
frieze,  and  cloth.  The  clothing  was  doubtless 
lighter,  because  the  climate  of  Virginia  was  warmer. 
There  were  no  gloves,  no  handkerchiefs,  no  hat, 
no  red  knit  caps,  no  mandillion,  no  extra  pair  of 
breeches.  They  had  "  a  dozen  points,"  which  were 
simply  tapes  to  hold  up  the  clothing  and  fasten  it 
together.  The  clothing  of  the  Piscataquay  planters 
varied  but  little  from  the  others.  They  had  scarlet 
waistcoats  and  cassocks  of  cloth,  not  of  leather.  We 
are  apt  to  think  of  the  Puritan  settlers  of  New  Eng- 
land as  sombre  in  attire,  wearing  "sad-colored" 
garments,  but  green  and  scarlet  waistcoats  and  scarlet 
caps  certainly  afforded  a  gay  touch  of  color. 


288  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


A  young  boy,  about  ten  years  old,  named  John 
Livingstone,  was  sent  from  New  York  to  school 
in  New  England  at  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  An  "account  of  his  new  linen  and 
clothes  "  has  been  preserved,  and  it  gives  an  ex- 
cellent idea  of  the  clothing  of  a  son  of  wealthy 
people  at  that  time.  It  reads  thus,  in  the  old 
spelling :  — 


"  Eleven  new  shirts, 

4  pair  laced  sieves, 

8  Plane  Cravats, 

4  Cravats  with  Lace, 

4  Stripte   Wastecoats  with 

black  buttons, 
I  Flowered  Wastecoat, 
4  New  osenbrig  britches, 
i   Gray  hat  with   a  black 

ribbon, 

I    Gray   hat  with    a  blew 

ribbon, 
i  Dousin  black  buttons, 
i  Dousin  coloured  buttons, 
3  Pair  gold  buttons, 


3  Pair  silver  buttons, 

2  Pair  Fine  blew  Stockings, 

1  Pair  Fine  red  Stockings, 

4  White  Handkerchiefs, 

2  Speckled  Handkerchiefs, 

5  Pair  Gloves, 

i   Stuff   Coat    with  black 

buttons, 
i  Cloth  Coat, 
i  Pair  blew  plush  britches, 

1  Pair  Serge  britches, 

2  Combs, 

i  Pair  new  Shooes, 
Silk  &  Thred  to  mend  his 
Cloathes." 


Osenbrig  was  a  heavy,  strong  linen.  This  would 
seem  to  be  a  summer  outfit,  and  scarcely  warm 
enough  for  New  England  winters.  Other  school- 
boys at  that  date  had  deerskin  breeches. 


Child's  Suit  worn  in  1784 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


Leather  was  much  used,  especially  in  the  form  of 
tanned  buckskin  breeches  and  the  deerskin  hunters' 
jackets,  which  have  always  and  deservedly  been  a 
favorite  wear,  since  they  are  one  of  the  most  appro- 
priate, useful, 
comfortable,  and 
picturesque  gar- 
ments ever  worn 
by  men  in  any 
active  outdoor 
life. 

Soon  in  the 
larger  cities  and 
among  wealthy 
folk  a  much  more 
elaborate  and  va- 
ried style  of  dress 
became  fashiona- 
ble. The  dress  of 
little  girls  in  fami- 
lies of  wealth  was 
certainly  almost 
as  formal  and  ele- 
gant as  the  dress 
of  their  mammas,  and  it  was  a  very  hampering  and 
stiff  dress.  They  wore  vast  hoop-petticoats,  heavy 
stays,  and  high-heeled  shoes.    Their  complexions 


Calash,  1780 


290  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


were  objects  of  special  care;  they  wore  masks  of 
cloth  or  velvet  to  protect  them  from  the  tanning 
rays  of  the  sun,  and  long-armed  gloves.  Little 
Dolly  Payne,  who  afterwards  became  the  wife  of 
President  Madison,  went  to  school  wearing  "  a 
white  linen  mask  to  keep  every  ray  of  sunshine  from 
the  complexion,  a  sunbonnet  sewed  on  her  head  every 
morning  by  her  careful  mother,  and  long  gloves 
covering  the  hands  and  arms."  Our  present  love 
of  outdoor  life,  of  athletic  sports,  and  our  indiffer- 
ence to  being  sunburned,  makes  such  painstaking 
vanity  seem  most  unbearably  tiresome. 

In  1737  Colonel  John  Lewis  sent  from  Virginia 
to  England  for  a  wardrobe  for  a  young  miss,  a 
school-girl,  who  was  his  ward.  The  list  reads 
thus : — 


"  A  cap  ruffle  and  tucker,  the 
lace  5  shillings  per  Yard, 

1  pair  White  Stays, 

8  pair  White  Kid  gloves, 

2  pair  coloured  kid  gloves, 

2  pair  worsted  hose, 

3  pair  thread  hose, 

1  pair  silk  shoes  laced, 
1  pair  morocco  shoes, 
1  Hoop  Coat, 
1  Hat, 


4  pair  plain  Spanish  shoes, 
2  pair  calf  shoes, 
1  mask, 
1  fan, 
1  necklace, 
1  Girdle  and  buckle, 
1  piece  fashionable  Calico, 
4  yards  ribbon  for  knots, 
1  y2  yard  Cambric, 
A  mantua  and  coat  of  lute- 
string." 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


291 


In  the  middle  of  the  century  George  Washington 
also  sent  to  England  for  an  outfit  for  his  step- 
daughter, Miss  Custis.  She  was  four  years  old, 
and  he  ordered  for  her,  pack-thread  stays,  stiff  coats 
of  silk,  masks, 
caps,  bonnets,  bibs, 
ruffles,  necklaces, 
fans,  silk  and  cal- 
amanco shoes,  and 
leather  pumps. 
There  were  also 
eight  pairs  of  kid 
mitts  and  .  four 
pairs  of  gloves; 
these  with  the 
masks  show  that 
this  little  girl's 
complexion  was 
also  to  be  well 
guarded. 

A  little  New 
England  Miss  Huntington,  when  twelve  years  old, 
was  sent  from  Norwich,  Connecticut,  to  be  "  fin- 
ished "  in  a  Boston  boarding-school.  She  had 
twelve  silk  gowns,  but  her  teacher  wrote  home 
that  she  must  have  another  gown  of  "  a  recently 
imported  rich  fabric,"  which  was  at  once  bought 


Pumpkin  Hood,  1800 


2g2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


for  her  because  it  was  "  suitable  for  her  rank  and 
station." 

Through  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries there  was  a  constant  succession  of  rich  and  gay- 
fashions  ;  for  American  dress  was  carefully  modelled 
upon  European,  especially  English  modes.  Men's 
wear  was  as  rich  as  women's.  An  English  traveller 
said  that  Boston  women  and  men  in  1740  dressed 
as  gay  every  day  as  courtiers  in  England  at  a  coro- 
nation. But  with  all  the  richness  there  was  no 
wastefulness.  The  sister  of  the  rich  Boston  mer- 
chant, Peter  Faneuil,  who  built  Faneuil  Hall,  sent 
her  gowns  to  London  to  be  turned  and  dyed,  and 
her  old  ribbons  and  gowns  to  be  sold.  But  her 
gowns,  which  are  still  preserved,  are  of  magnifi- 
cent stuffs. 

New  Yorkers  were  dressed  in  gauzes,  silks,  and 
laces;  even  women  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania  had 
to  be  warned  against  wearing  hoop-petticoats,  scarlet 
shoes,  and  puffed  and  rolled  hair. 

The  family  of  so  frugal  a  man  as  Benjamin 
Franklin  did  not  escape  a  slight  infection  of  the 
prevailing  love  for  gay  dress.  In  the  Pennsylvania 
Gazette  this  advertisement  appeared  in  1750:  — 

"  Whereas  on  Saturday  night  last  the  house  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  of  this  city,  Printer,  was  broken  open,  and  the 
following  things  feloniously  taken  away,  viz.,  a  double 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


293 


necklace  of  gold  beads,  a  womans  long  scarlet  cloak 
almost  new,  with  a  double  cape,  a  womans  gown,  of 
printed  cotton  of  the  sort  called  brocade  print,  very  remark- 
able, the  ground  dark,  with  large  red  roses,  and  other  large 
and  yellow  flowers,  with  blue  in  some  of  the  flowers,  with 
many  green  leaves ;  a  pair  of  womens  stays  covered  with 
white  tabby  before,  and  dove  colour'd  tabby  behind,  with  two 
large  steel  hooks  and  sundry  other  goods,  etc." 

Southern  dames,  especially  of  Annapolis,  Balti- 
more, and  Charleston,  were  said  to  have  the  richest 
brocades  and  damasks  that  could  be  bought  in  Lon- 
don. Every  sailing-vessel  that  came  from  Europe 
brought  boxes  of  splendid  clothing.  The  heroes 
of  the  Revolution  had  a  high  regard  for  dress.  The 
patriot,  John  Hancock,  was  seen  at  noonday  wear- 
ing a  scarlet  velvet  cap,  a  blue  damask  gown  lined 
with  velvet,  white  satin  embroidered  waistcoat,  black 
satin  small-clothes,  white  silk  stockings,  and  red 
morocco  slippers.  George  Washington  was  most 
precise  in  his  orders  for  his  clothing,  and  wore  the 
richest  silk  and  velvet  suits. 

A  true  description  of  a  Boston  printer  just  after 
the  Revolution  shows  his  style  of  dress :  — 

"  He  wore  a  pea-green  coat,  white  vest,  nankeen  small 
clothes,  white  silk  stockings,  and  pumps  fastened  with 
silver  buckles  which  covered  at  least  half  the  foot  from 
instep  to  toe.    His  small  clothes  were  tied  at  the  knees 


294  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


with  ribbon  of  the  same  colour  in  double  bows,  the  ends 
reaching  down  to  the  ancles.  His  hair  in  front  was  well 
loaded  with  pomatum,  frizzled  or  craped  and  powdered. 
Behind,  his  natural  hair  was  augmented  by  the  addition  of 
a  large  queue  called  vulgarly  a  false  tail,  which,  enrolled 
in  some  yards  of  black  ribbon,  hung  half-way  down  his 
back." 

Many  letters  still  exist  written  by  prominent  citi- 
zens of  colonial  times  ordering  clothing,  chiefly 
from  Europe.  Rich  laces,  silk  materials,  velvet,  and 
fine  cloth  of  light  and  gay  colors  abound.  Fre- 
quently they  ordered  nightgowns  of  silk  and  dam- 
ask. These  nightgowns  were  not  a  garment  worn 
at  night,  but  a  sort  of  dressing-gown.  Harvard 
students  were  in  1754  forbidden  to  wear  them. 
Under  the  name  of  banyan  they  became  very  fash- 
ionable, and  men  had  their  portraits  painted  in 
them,  for  instance  the  portrait  of  Nicholas  Boylston, 
now  in  Harvard  Memorial  Hall. 

With  the  increase  of  trade  with  China  many 
Chinese  and  East  Indian  goods  became  fashionable, 
with  hundreds  of  different  names.  A  few  were  of 
silk  or  linen,  but  far  more  of  cotton ;  among  them 
nankeens  were  the  most  imported  and  even  for 
winter  wear. 

Both  men  and  women  wore  for  many  years  great 
cloaks  or  capes,  known  by  various  names,  such  as 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


roquelaures,  capuchins,  pelisses,  etc.  Women's  shoes 
were  of  very  thin  materials,  and  paper-soled.  They 
wore  to  protect  these  frail  shoes,  when  walking  on 
the  ill-paved  streets,  various  forms  of  overshoes, 
known  as  goloe-shoes,  clogs,  pattens,  etc.  When 
riding,  women  in  the  colonies  wore,  as  did  Queen 


Colonial  Pattens 


Elizabeth,  a  safeguard,  a  long  over-petticoat  to  pro- 
tect the  gown  from  mud  and  rain.  This  was  some- 
times called  a  foot-mantle,  also  a  weather-skirt.  A 
traveller  tells  of  seeing  a  row  of  horses  tied  to  a 
fence  outside  a  Quaker  meeting.  Some  carried  side 
saddles,  some  men's  saddles  and  pillions.  On  the 
fence  hung  the  muddy  safeguards  the  Quaker  dames 
had  worn  outside  their  drab  petticoats.    Men  wore 


296  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


sherry-vallies  or  spatter-dashes  to  protect  their  gay 
breeches. 

There  was  one  fashion  which  lasted  for  a  century 
and  a  half  which  was  so  untidy,  so  uncomfortable, 
so  costly,  and  so  ridiculous  that  we  can  only  wonder 
that  it  was  endured  for  a  single  season  —  I  mean 
the  fashion  of  wig-wearing  by  men.  The  first  colo- 
nists wore  their  own  natural  hair.  The  Cavaliers 
had  long  and  perfumed  love-locks ;  and  though  the 
Puritans  had  been  called  Roundheads,  their  hair 
waved,  also,  over  the  band  or  collar,  and  often  hung 
over  the  shoulder.  The  Quakers,  also,  wore  long 
locks,  as  the  lovely  portrait  of  William  Penn  shows. 
But  by  1675  w*gs  had  become  common  enough  to 
be  denounced  by  the  Massachusetts  government, 
and  to  be  preached  against  by  many  ministers  ; 
while  other  ministers  proudly  wore  them.  Wigs 
were  called  horrid  bushes  of  vanity,  and  hundreds 
of  other  disparaging  names,  which  seemed  to  make 
them  more  popular.  They  varied  from  year  to 
year ;  sometimes  they  swelled  out  at  the  sides,  or 
rose  in  great  puffs,  or  turned  under  in  heavy  rolls, 
or  hung  in  braids  and  curls  and  pig-tails ;  they 
were  made  of  human  hair,  of  horsehair,  goat's-hair, 
calves'  and  cows'  tails,  of  thread,  silk,  and  mohair. 
They  had  scores  of  "silly  and  meaningless  names, 
such  as  "grave  full-bottom,,,  "giddy  feather-top, " 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


"long-tail/'  "fox-tail,"  "drop-wig,"  etc.  They 
were  bound  and  braided  with  pink,  green,  red,  and 
purple  ribbons,  sometimes  all  these  colors  on  one 
wig.  They  were  very  heavy,  and  very  hot,  and 
very  expensive,  often  costing  what  would  be  equal 
to  a  hundred  dollars  to-day.  The  care  of  them  was 
a  great  item,  often  ten  pounds  a  year  for  a  single 
wig,  and  some  gentlemen  owned  eight  or  ten  wigs. 
Little  children  wore  them.  I  have  seen  the  bill  for 
a  wig  for  William  Freeman,  dated  1754;  he  was  a 
child  seven  years  old.  His  father  paid  nine  pounds 
for  it,  and  the  same  for  wigs  for  his  other  boys  of 
nine  and  ten.  Even  servants  wore  them  ;  I  read  in 
the  Massachusetts  Gazette  of  a  runaway  negro  slave 
who  "  wore  off  a  curl  of  hair  tied  around  his  head 
with  a  string  to  imitate  a  wig,"  which  must  have 
been  a  comical  sight.  After  wigs  had  become  un- 
fashionable, the  natural  hair  was  powdered,  and  was 
tied  in  a  queue  in  the  back.  This  was  an  untidy, 
troublesome  fashion,  which  ruined  the  clothes  ;  for 
the  hair  was  soaked  with  oil  or  pomatum  to  make 
the  powder  stick. 

Comparatively  little  jewellery  was  worn.  A  few 
men  had  gold  or  silver  sleeve-buttons  ;  a  few  women 
had  bracelets  or  lockets ;  nearly  all  of  any  social 
standing  had  rings,  which  were  chiefly  mourning- 
rings.    As  these  gloomy  ornaments  were  given  to 


298  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


all  the  chief  mourners  at  funerals,  it  can  be  seen  that 
a  man  of  large  family  connections,  or  of  prominent 
social  standing,  might  acquire  a  great  many  of  them. 
The  minister  and  doctor  usually  had  a  ring  at  every 
funeral  they  attended.  It  is  told  of  an  old  Salem 
doctor,  who  died  in  1758,  that  he  had  a  tankard  full 


Eighteenth-century  Spectacles 


of  mourning-rings  which  he  had  secured  at  funerals. 
Men  sometimes  wore  thumb-rings,  which  seems  no 
queerer  than  the  fact  that  they  carried  muffs.  Old 
Dr.  Prince  of  Boston  carried  an  enormous  bearskin 
muff. 

Gloves  also  were  gifts  at  funerals,  sometimes  in 
large  numbers.    At  the  funeral  of  the  wife  of  Gov- 


Dress  of  the  Colonists 


ernor  Belcher,  in  1738,  over  a  thousand  pairs  were 
given  away.  Rev.  Andrew  Eliot,  who  was  pastor  of 
the  North  Church  in  Boston,  had  twenty-nine  hun- 
dred pair  of  gloves  given  him  in  thirty-two  years  ; 
many  of  these  he  sold.  In  all  the  colonies,  whether 
settled  by  Dutch,  English,  French,  German,  or 
Swedes,  gloves  were  universally  given  at  funerals. 

The  early  watches  were  clumsy  affairs,  often  glo- 
bose in  shape,  with  a  detached  outer  case. 

To  show  how  few  of  the  first  colonists  owned 
either  watches  or  clocks,  we  have  the  contemporary 
evidence  of  Roger  Williams.  When  he  rowed 
thirty  miles  down  the  bay,  and  disputed  with  the 
"Foxians"  at  Newport  in  1672,  it  was  agreed  that 
each  party  should  be  heard  in  turn  for  a  quarter  of 
an  hour.  But  no  clock  was  available  in  Newport ; 
and  among  the  whole  population  that  flocked  to  the 
debate,  there  was  not  a  single  watch.  Williams 
says,  "unless  we  had  Clocks  and  Watches  and 
Quarter  Glasses  (as  in  some  Ships)  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  be  exactly  punctual,"  so  they  guessed  at  the 
time. 

Sun-dials  were  often  set  in  the  street  in  front  of 
houses ;  and  noon-marks  on  the  threshold  of  the 
front  door  or  window-sill  helped  to  show  the  hour 
of  the  day. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


JACK-KNIFE  INDUSTRIES 

CHEPA  ROSE  was  one  of  those  old- 
time  chap-men  known  throughout  New 
England  as  "trunk  pedlers."  Bearing  on 
his  back  by  means  of  a  harness  of  stout  hempen 
webbing  two  oblong  trunks  of  thin  metal,  —  proba- 
bly tin,  —  for  forty-eight  years  he  had  appeared  at 
every  considerable  farmhouse  throughout  Narra- 
gansett  and  eastern  Connecticut,  at  intervals  as 
regular  as  the  action  and  appearance  of  the  sun, 
moon,  and  tides;  and  everywhere  was  he  greeted 
with  an  eager  welcome. 

Chepa  was,  as  he  said,  "half  Injun,  half  French, 
and  half  Yankee.,,  From  his  Indian  half  he 
had  his  love  of  tramping  which  made  him  choose 
the  wandering  trade  of  trunk  pedler ;  his  French 
half  made  him  a  good  trader  and  talker;  while  his 
Yankee  half  endowed  him  with  a  universal  Yankee 
trait,  a  "  handiness,"  which  showed  in  scores  of 
gifts  and  accomplishments  and  knacks  that  made 

300 


Jack-knife  Industries  301 

him  as  warmly  greeted  everywhere  as  were  his 
attractive  trunks. 

He  was  a  famous  medicine-brewer;  from  the 
roots  and  herbs  and  barks  that  he  gathered  as  he 
tramped  along  the  country  roads  he  manufactured  a 
cough  medicine  that  was  twice  as  effective  and  twice 
as  bitter  as  old  Dr.  Greene's ;  he  made  famous 
plasters,  of  two  kinds,  — plasters  to  stick  and  plasters 
to  crawl,  the  latter  to  follow  the  course  of  the  dis- 
ease or  pain ;  he  concocted  wonderful  ink ;  he 
showed  Jenny  Greene  how  to  bleach  her  new  straw 
bonnet  with  sulphur  fumes  ;  he  mended  umbrellas, 
harnesses,  and  tinware  ;  he  made  glorious  teetotums 
which  the  children  looked  for  as  eagerly  and  unfail- 
ingly as  they  did  for  his  tops  and  marbles,  his  rib- 
bons and  Gibraltars. 

One  day  he  came  through  the  woods  to  John 
Helme's  house  carrying  in  his  hand  a  stout  birchen 
staff  or  small  tree-trunk,  which  he  laid  down  on 
the  flat  millstone  imbedded  in  the  grass  at  the 
back  door,  while  he  displayed  and  sold  his  wares 
and  had  his  dinner.  He  then  went  out  to  the 
dooryard  with  little  Johnny  Helme,  sat  down  on 
the  millstone,  lighted  his  pipe,  opened  his  jack- 
knife,  and  discoursed  thus  :  — 

"Johnny,  I'm  going  to  tell  you  how  to  make  an  Injun 
broom.    Fust,  you  must  find  a  big  birch-tree.    There  ain't 


302  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


so  many  big  ones  now  of  any  kind  as  there  useter  be  when 
we  made  canoes  and  plates  and  cradles,  and  water  spouts, 
and  troughs,  and  furnitoor  out  of  the  bark.  But  you  must 
get  a  yallow  birch-tree  as  straight  as  H  and  edzactly  five 
inch  acrost.  Now,  how  kin  ye  tell  how  fur  it  is  acrost  a 
tree  afore  ye  cut  it  off?  I  kin  tell  by  the  light  of  my  eye, 
but  that's  Injun  larnin'.  Lemme  tell  you  by  book-larnin'. 
Measure  it  round,  and  make  the  string  in  three  parts,  and 
one  part'll  be  what  it  is  acrost.  If  it's  nine  inch  round, 
it'll  be  three  inch  acrost,  and  so  on.  Now  don't  you  for- 
git  that.  Wal !  you  must  get  a  straight  birch-tree  five  inch 
acrost  where  you  cut  it  off,  just  like  this  one.  Then  make 
the  stick  six  foot  long.  Then  one  foot  and  two  inch  from 
the  big  end  cut  a  ring  round  the  bark ;  wal !  say  two  inch 
wide  just  like  this.  Then  you  take  off  all  the  bark  below 
that  ring.  Then  you  begin  a-slivering  with  a  sharp  jack- 
knife,  leetle  teeny  flat  slivers  way  up  to  the  bark  ring. 
When  it's  all  slivered  up  thin  and  flat  there'll  be  a  leetle 
hard  core  left  inside  at  the  top,  and  you  must  cut  it  out 
careful.  Then  you  take  off  the  bark  above  the  ring  and 
begin  slivering  down.  Leave  a  stick  just  big  enough  for  a 
handle.  Then  tie  this  last  lot  of  slivers  down  tight  over 
the  others  with  a  hard-twisted  tow  string,  and  trim  'em  off 
even.  Then  whittle  off  and  scrape  off  a  good  smooth 
handle  with  a  hole  in  the  top  to  put  a  loop  of  cowhide  in, 
to  hang  it  up  by  orderly. 

"Yes,  Johnny,  I've  got  just  enough  Injun  in  me  to 
make  a  good  broom;  not  enough  to  be  ashamed  of  and 
not  enough  to  be  proud  of.     But  you  mustn't  forgit  this ; 


Jack-knife  I  ndustr ies 


a  moccasin's  the  best  cover  a  man  ever  had  on  his  feet  in 
the  woods ;  the  easiest  to  get  stuff  for,  the  easiest  to  make, 
the  easiest  to  wear.  And  a  birch-bark  canoe's  the  best 
boat  a  man  can  have  on  the  river.  It's  the  easiest  to  get 
stuff  for,  easiest  to  carry,  the  fastest  to  paddle.  And  a 
snowshoe's  the  best  help  a  man  can  have  in  the  winter. 
It's  the  easiest  to  get  stuff  for,  the  easiest  to  walk  on,  the 
easiest  to  carry.  And  just  so  a  birch  broom  is  the  best 
broom  a  man  or  at  any  rate  a  woman  can  have ;  four  best 
things  and  all  of  'em  is  Injun.  Now  you  just  slip  in  and 
take  that  broom  to  Phillis.  I  see  her  the  last  time  I  was 
here  a-using  a  mizrable  store  broom  to  clean  her  oven  — 
and  just  ask  her  if  I  can't  have  a  mug  of  apple-jack  afore 
I  go  to  bed." 

If  this  scene  had  been  laid  in  New  Hampshire  or 
Vermont  instead  of  Narragansett,  the  Indian  broom 
would  have  been  no  novelty  to  any  boy  or  house- 
servant.  For  in  the  northern  New  England  states, 
heavily  wooded  with  yellow  birch,  every  boy  knew 
how  to  make  the  Indian  brooms,  and  every  house- 
hold in  country  or  town  had  them.  There  was  a 
constant  demand  in  Boston  for  them,  and  some- 
times country  stores  had  several  hundred  of  the 
brooms  at  a  time.  Throughout  Vermont  seventy 
years  ago  the  uniform  price  paid  for  making  one 
of  these  brooms  was  six  cents ;  and  if  the  splints 
were  very  fine  and  the  handle  scraped  with  glass,  it 


304  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


took  nearly  three  evenings  to  finish  it.  Indian 
squaws  peddled  them  throughout  the  country  for 

ninepence  apiece.  Major  Rob- 
ert Randolph  told  in  fashion- 
able London  circles  about  the 
year  1750,  that  when  he  was  a 
boy  in  New  Hampshire  he 
earned  his  only  spending-money 
by  making  these  brooms  and 
carrying  them  on  his  back  ten 
miles  to  town  to  sell  them. 
Girls  could  whittle  as  well  as 
boys,  and  often  exchanged  the 
birch  brooms  they  made  for  a 
bit  of  ribbon  or  lace. 

A  simpler  and  less  durable 
broom  was  made  of  hemlock 
branches.  A  local  rhyme  says 
of  them :  — 


Birch  Splint  Broom 


"  Driving  at  twilight  the  waiting 

cows, 

With    arms    full-laden  with 
hemlock  boughs, 
To  be  traced  on  a  broom  ere  the  coming  day 
From  its  eastern  chambers  should  dance  away." 

The  hemlock  broom  was  simply  a  bunch  of  close- 
growing,  full-foliaged  hemlock  branches  tied  tightly 


Jack-knife  I  ndustries 


together  and  wound  around  with  hempen  twine, 
"  traced,"  the  rhyme  says,  with  a  sharply  pointed 
handle,  which  the  boys  had  shaped  and  whittled, 
driven  well  into  the  bound  portion.  This  making 
of  brooms  for  domestic  use  is  but  an  example  of 
one  of  the  many  score  of  useful  domestic  and  farm 
articles  which  were  furnished  by  the  natural  resources 
of  every  wood-lot,  adapted  by  the  Yankee  jack-knife 
and  a  few  equally  simple  tools,  of  which  the  gimlet 
might  take  the  second  place. 

It  was  so  emphatically  a  wooden  age  in  colonial 
days  that  it  seemed  almost  that  there  were  no  hard 
metals  used  for  any  articles  which  to-day  seem  so 
necessarily  of  metal.  Ploughs  were  of  wood,  and 
harrows  ;  cart-wheels  were  often  wholly  of  wood 
without  tires,  though  sometimes  iron  plates  called 
strakes  held  the  felloes  together,  being  fastened  to 
them  by  long  clinch-pins.  The  dish-turner  and 
cooper  were  artisans  of  importance  in  those  days  ; 
piggins,  noggins,  runlets,  keelers,  firkins,  buckets, 
churns,  dye-tubs,  cowles,  powdering-tubs,  were  made 
with  chary  or  no  use  of  metal. 

The  forests  were  the  wealth  of  the  colonies  in 
more  ways  than  one ;  and  it  may  be  said  that  they 
furnished  both  domestic  winter  employment  and 
toys  for  the  boys.  The  New  England  forests  were 
full  of  richly  varied  kinds  of  wood,  suitable  for 


306  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


varied  uses,  with  varied  qualities  —  pliability,  stiff- 
ness, durability,  weight,  strength  ;  and  it  is  surpris- 
ing to  see  how  quickly  the  woods  were  assigned  to 
fixed  uses,  even  for  toys  ;  in  every  state  pop-guns 
were  made  from  elder;  bows  and  arrows  of  hemlock; 
whistles  of  chestnut  or  willow. 

The  Rev.  John  Pierpont  wrote  thus  of  the  whit- 
tling of  his  childhood  days  :  — 

w  The  Yankee  boy  before  he's  sent  to  school 
Well  knows  the  mysteries  of  that  magic  tool  — 
The  pocket-knife.    To  that  his  wistful  eye 
Turns,  while  he  hears  his  mother's  lullaby. 
And  in  the  education  of  the  lad, 
No  little  part  that  implement  hath  had. 
His  pocket-knife  to  the  young  whittler  brings 
A  growing  knowledge  of  material  things, 
Projectiles,  music,  and  the  sculptor's  art. 
His  chestnut  whistle,  and  his  shingle  dart, 
His  elder  pop-gun  with  its  hickory  rod, 
Its  sharp  explosion  and  rebounding  wad, 
His  corn-stalk  fiddle,  and  the  deeper  tone 
That  murmurs  from  his  pumpkin-leaf  trombone 
Conspire  to  teach  the  boy.    To  these  succeed 
His  bow,  his  arrow  of  a  feathered  reed, 
His  windmill  raised  the  passing  breeze  to  win, 
His  water-wheel  that  turns  upon  a  pin. 
Thus  by  his  genius  and  his  jack-knife  driven 
Ere  long  he'll  solve  you  any  problem  given  ,* 


Jack-knife  Industries  307 

Make  you  a  locomotive  or  a  clock, 
Cut  a  canal  or  build  a  floating  dock  : 
Make  anything  in  short  for  sea  or  shore, 
From  a  child's  rattle  to  a  seventy-four. 
Make  it,  said  I  —  ay,  when  he  undertakes  it, 
He'll   make   the  thing  and  make  the  thing  that 
makes  it." 

The  boy's  jack-knife  was  a  possession  so  highly 
desired,  so  closely  treasured  in  those  days  when  boys 
had  so  few  belongings,  that  it  is  pathetic  to  read 


Barlow  Jack-knives 


of  many  a  farm  lad's  struggles  and  long  hours  of 
weary  work  to  obtain  a  good  knife.  Barlow  knives 
were  the  most  highly  prized  for  certainly  sixty  years, 
and  had,  I  am  told,  a  vast  popularity  for  over 
a  century.  May  they  forever  rest  in  glorious 
memory,  as  they  lived  the  happiest  of  lots  !    To  be 


308  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

the  best  beloved  of  a  century  of  Yankee  boys  is 
indeed  an  enviable  destiny.  A  few  battered  old 
soldiers  of  this  vast  army  of  Barlow  jack-knives  still 
linger  to  show  us  the  homely  features  borne  by  the 
century's  well  beloved :  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
cherishes  some  of  colonial  days  ;  and  from  Deerfield 
Memorial  Hall  are  shown  three  Barlow  knives 
whose  picture  should  appear  to  every  American 
something  more  than  the  presentment  of  dull  bits  of 
wood  and  rusted  metal.  These  Yankee  jack-knives 
were,  said  Daniel  Webster,  the  direct  forerunners 
of  the  cotton-gin  and  thousands  of  noble  American 
inventions  ;  the  New  England  boy's  whittling  was 
his  alphabet  of  mechanics. 

In  this  connection,  let  us  note  the  skilful  and 
utilitarian  adaptation  not  only  of  natural  mate- 
rials for  domestic  and  farm  use,  but  also  natural 
forms.  The  farmer  and  his  wife  both  turned  to 
Nature  for  implements  and  utensils,  or  for  parts 
adapted  to  shape  readily  into  the  implements  and 
utensils  of  every-day  life.  When  we  read  of  the 
first  Boston  settlers  that  "the  dainty  Indian  maize 
was  eat  with  clam-shells  out  of  wooden  trays,"  we 
learn  of  a  primitive  spoon,  a  clam-shell  set  in  a 
split  stick,  which  has  been  used  till  this  century. 
Large  flat  clam-shells  were  used  and  highly  es- 
teemed by  housewives,  as  skimming-shells  in  the 


Jack-knife  I  ndustries 


dairy,  to  skim  cream  from  the  milk.  Gourd- 
shells  made  capital  bowls,  skimmers,  dippers,  and 
bottles  ;  pumpkin-shells,  good  seed  and  grain 
holders.  Turkey- 
wings  made  an 
ever-ready  hearth- 
brush.  In  the 
forests  were  many 
"crooked  sticks" 
that  were  more 
useful  than  any 
straight  ones 
could  be.  When 
the  mower  wanted 
a  new  snathe  or 
snead,  as  he  called 
it,  for  his  scythe, 
he  found  in  the 
woods  a  deformed 
sapling  that  had 
grown  under  a 
log  or  twisted 
around  a  rock  in 
a  double  bend,  which  made  it  the  exact  shape  desired. 
He  then  whittled  it,  dressed  it  with  a  draw-shave, 
fastened  the  nebs  with  a  neb-wedge,  hung  it  with 
an  iron  ring,  and  was  ready  for  the  mowing-field. 


Old  Gourd  Dishes 


r 

310  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Sled-runners  were  made  from  saplings  bent  at 
the  root.  The  best  thills  for  a  cart  were  those 
naturally  shaped  by  growth.  The  curved  pieces  of 
wood  in  the  harness  of  a  draught-horse,  called  the 
hames,  to  which  the  traces  are  fastened,  could  be 
found  in  twisted  growths,  as  could  also  portions  of 
ox-yokes.  The  gambrels  used  in  slaughtering 
times,  hay-hooks,  long-handled  pothooks  for  brick 
ovens,  could  all  be  cut  ready-shaped. 

The  smaller  underbrush  and  saplings  had  many 
uses.  Sled  and  cart  stakes  were  cut  from  some  ; 
long  bean-poles  from  others ;  specially  straight 
clean  sticks  were  saved  for  whip-stocks.  Sections 
of  birch  bark  could  be  bottomed  and  served  for 
baskets,  or  for  potash  cans,  while  capital  feed-boxes 
could  be  made  in  the  same  way  of  sections  cut 
from  a  hollow  hemlock.    Elm  rind  and  portions  of 


Goose-yoke  and  Pig-yoke 


Jack-knife  I  ndustries 


3" 


brown  ash  butts  were  natural  materials  for  chair- 
seats  and  baskets,  as  were  flags  for  door-mats. 
Forked  branches  made  geese  and  hog  yokes.  Hogs 
that  ran  at  large  had  to  wear  yokes.  It  was  ordered 
that  these  yokes  should  measure  as  long  as  twice 
and  a  half  times  the  depth  of  the  neck,  while  the 
bottom  piece  was  three  times  the  width  of  the  neck. 

In  the  shaping  of  heavy  and  large  vessels  such 
as  salt-mortars,  pig  troughs,  maple-sap  troughs,  the 
jack-knife  was  abandoned  and  the  methods  of  the 
Indians  adopted.  These  vessels  were  burnt  and 
scraped  out  of  a  single  log,  and  thus  had  a  weighty 
stability  and  permanence.  Wooden  bread  troughs 
were  also  made  from  a  single  piece  of  wood.  These 
were  oblong,  trencher-shaped  bowls  about  eighteen 
inches  long ;  across  the  trough  ran  lengthwise  a 
stick  or  rod  on  which  rested  the  sieve,  searse,  or 
temse,  when  flour  was  sifted  into  the  trough.  The 
saying  "  set  the  Thames  (or  temse)  on  fire,"  meant 
that  hard  work  and  active  friction  would  set  the 
wooden  temse  on  fire. 

Sometimes  the  mould  for  an  ox-bow  was  dug  out 
of  a  log  of  wood.  Oftener  a  plank  of  wood  was 
cut  into  the  desired  shape  as  a  frame  or  mould,  and 
fastened  to  a  heavy  backboard.  The  ox-bow  was 
steamed,  placed  in  the  bow-mould,  pinned  in,  and 
then  carefully  seasoned. 


312  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  boys  whittled  cheese-ladders,  cheese-hoops, 
and  red-cherry  butter-paddles  for  their  mothers' 
dairy  ;  also  many  parts  of  cheese-presses-  and  churns. 
To  the  toys  enumerated  by  Rev.  Mr.  Pierpont, 
they  added  box-traps  and  "  figure  4  "  traps  of  vari- 
ous sizes  for  catching  vari-sized  animals. 

Many  farm  implements  other  than  those  already 
named  were  made,  and  many  portions  of  tools  and 
implements  ;  among  them  were  shovels,  swingling- 
knives,  sled-neaps,  stanchions,  handles  for  spades 
and  bill-hooks,  rake-stales,  fork-stales,  flails.  A 
group  of  old  farm  implements  from  Memorial 
Hall,  at  Deerfield,  is  here  given.  The  handleless 
scythe-snathe  is  said  to  have  come  over  on  the 
Mayflower. 

The  making  of  flails  was  an  important  and  use- 
ful work.  Many  were  broken  and  worn  out  during 
a  great  threshing.  Both  parts,  the  staff  or  handle, 
and  the  swingle  or  swiple,  were  carefully  shaped 
from  well-chosen  wood,  to  be  joined  together  later 
by  an  eelskin  or  leather  strap. 

The  flail  is  little  seen  on  farms  to-day.  Thresh- 
ing and  winnowing  machines  have  taken  its  place. 
The  father  of  Robert  Burns  declared  threshing 
with  a  flail  to  be  the  only  degrading  and  stultifying 
work  on  a  farm  ;  but  I  never  knew  another  farmer 
who  deemed  it  so,  though  it  was  certainly  hard 


Jack-knife   I  ndustries 


313 


work.  Last  autumn  I  visited  the  "  Poor  Farm " 
on  Quonsett  Point  in  old  Narragansett.  In  the 
vast  barn  of  that  beautiful  and  sparsely  occupied 
country  home,  two  powerful  men,  picturesque  in 
blue  jeans  tucked  in 
heavy  boots,  in  scarlet 
shirts  and  great  straw 
hats,  were  threshing  out 
grain  with  flails.  Both 
men  were  blind,  one 
wholly,  the  other  par- 
tially so  —  and  were 
"  Town  Poor."  Their 
strong,  bare  arms  swung 
the  long  flails  in  alter- 
nate strokes  with  the 
precision  of  clockwork, 
bringing  each  blow 
down  on  the  piled-up 
wheat-straw  which  cov- 
ered the  barn-floor,  as 
they  advanced,  one  step- 
ping backward  while  the 

other  stepped   forward,  Mayflower  Scythe-snathe,  Pitchfork,  Scythe, 

d.  1  1     1        •  1  Flail  and  Swingle,  and  Bill-hook 

then  receded  with  s 

mechanical  and  rhythmic  regularity,  a  step  and  a 

blow,  from  one  end  of  the  long  barn  to  the  other. 


3J4 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  half-blind  thresher  could  see  the  outline  of 
the  open  door  against  the  sunlight,  and  his  steps 
and  voice  guided  his  sightless  fellow-worker.  Thus 
healthful  and  useful  employment  was  given  to  two 
stricken  waifs  through  the  use  of  primitive  methods, 
which  no  modern  machine  could  ever  have  afforded  ; 


Old-time  Axes  and  Riven  Laths 


and  the  blue  sky  and  bay,  with  autumnal  sunshine 
on  the  piled-up  golden  wheat  on  floor  and  in  rack, 
idealized  and  even  made  of  the  threshers,  paupers 
though  they  were,  a  beautiful  picture  of  old-time 
farm-life. 

Wood  for  axe-helves  was  carefully  chosen,  sawed, 
split,  and  whittled  into  shape.  These  were  then 
scraped  as  smooth  as  ivory  with    broken  glass. 


Jack-knife  I  ndus tries  315 

Some  men  had  a  knack  that  was  almost  genius  in 
shaping  these  axe-helves  and  selecting  the  wood  for 
them.  In  a  country  where  the  broad-axe  was  so 
important  an  implement  —  used  every  day  by  every 
farmer ;  where  lumbermen  and  loggers  and  ship- 
wrights swung  the  axe  the  entire  day  for  many 
months,  men  were  ready  to  pay  double  price  for  a 
well-made  helve,  so  shaped  as  to  let  the  heavy  blow 
jar  as  little  as  possible  the  hand  holding  the  helve. 
One  Maine  farmer  boasted  that  he  had  made  and 
sold  five  hundred  axe-helves,  and  received  a  good 
price  for  them  all ;  that  some  had  gone  five  hun- 
dred miles  out  west,  others  a  hundred  miles  "  up 
country";  and  of  no  one  of  them  which  he  had 
set  had  it  ever  been  said,  as  of  the  axe  in  Deuter- 
onomy, "  When  a  man  goeth  into  the  wood  to  hew 
wood,  and  his  hand  fetcheth  a  stroke  with  the  axe 
to  cut  down  a  tree,  then  the  head  slippeth  from 
the  helve. " 

A  little  money  might  be  earned  by  cutting  heel- 
pegs  for  shoemakers.  These  were  made  of  a  maple 
trunk  sawed  across  the  grain,  making  the  circular 
board  thin  enough  - —  a  half  inch  or  so  —  for  the 
correct  length  of  the  pegs.  The  end  was  then 
marked  in  parallel  lines,  then  grooved  across  at 
right  angles,  then  split  as  marked  into  pegs  with 
knife  and  mallet.    A  story  is  told  of  a  farmer  named 


316  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Meigs,  who,  on  the  winter  ride  to  market  in  com- 
pany with  a  score  or  more  of  his  neighbors,  stole 
out  at  night  from  the  tavern  fireside  where  all  were 
gathered  to  the  barn  where  the  horses  were  put  up. 
There  he  took  an  oat-bag  out  of  a  neighbor's  sleigh 
and  poured  out  a  good  feed  for  his  own  horse.  In 
the  morning  it  was  found  that  his  horse  had  not 
relished  the  shoe-pegs  that  had  been  put  in  his 
manger ;  and  their  telltale  presence  plainly  pointed 
out  the  thief,  These  shoe-pegs  were  a  venture  of 
two  farmer  boys  which  their  father  was  taking  to 
town  to  sell  for  them,  and  in  indignation  the  boys 
thrust  on  the  thief  the  name  of  Shoe-pegs  Meigs, 
which  he  carried  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

When  the  boys  had  learned  to  use  a  few  other 
tools  besides  their  jack-knives,  as  they  quickly  did, 
they  could  get  sawed  staves  from  the  sawmills  and 
make  up  shooks  of  staves  bound  with  hoops  of  red 
oak,  for  molasses  hogsheads.  These  would  be 
shipped  to  the  West  Indies,  and  form  an  impor- 
tant link  in  the  profitable  rum  and  slave  round  of 
traffic  that  bound  Africa,  New  England,  and  the 
West  Indies  so  closely  together  in  those  days.  A 
constant  occupation  for  men  and  boys  was  making 
rived  or  shaved  shingles.  They  were  split  with  a 
beetle  and  wedge.  A  smart  workman  could  by 
sharp  work  make  a  thousand  a  day.    There  may 


Jack-knife  I  ndustries 


3X7 


still  be  occasionally  found  in  what  were  well-wooded 
pine  regions,  in  shed  or  barn-lofts,  or  in  old  wood- 
houses,  a  stout  oaken  frame  or  rack  such  as  was  at 
one  time  found  in  nearly  every  house.  It  was 
known  as  a  bundling-mould  or  shingling-mould. 
At  the  bottom  of  this  strong  frame  were  laid 
straight  sticks  and  twisted  withes  which  extended 
up  the  sides.  Upon  these  were  evenly  packed  the 
shingles,  two  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  known 
as  a  "  quarter."  The  withes  or  "  binders"  were 
twisted  strongly  around  when  the  number  was  full. 
The  mould  held  them  firmly  in  place  while  being 
tied.  These  were  sealed  by  law  and  shipped.  Cul- 
lers of  staves  were  regularly  appointed  town  officers. 
The  dimensions  of  the  shingles  were  given  by  law 
and  rule ;  fifteen  inches  was  the  length  for  one 
period  of  time,  and  the  bundling-mould  conformed 
to  it. 

Daniel  Leake  of  Salisbury,  New  Hampshire, 
made  during  his  lifetime  and  was  paid  for  a  million 
shingles.  Daring  the  years  he  was  accomplishing 
this  colossal  work  he  cleared  three  hundred  acres 
of  land,  tapped  for  twenty  years  at  least  six  hun- 
dred maple-trees,  making  sometimes  four  thousand 
pounds  of  sugar  a  year.  He  could  mow  six  acres 
a  day,  giving  nine  tons  of  hay ;  his  strong,  long 
arms  cut  a  swath  twelve  feet  wide.    In  his  spare  time 


3i8 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


he  worked  as  a  cooper,  and  he  was  a  famous  drum- 
maker.  Truly  there  were  giants  in  those  days.  I 
love  to  read  of  such  vigorous,  powerful  lives  ;  they 
seem  to  be  of  a  race  entirely  different  from  our  own. 
Still,  among  our  New  England  forbears  I  doubt  not 
many  of  us  had  some  such  giants,  who  conquered 
for  us  the  earth  and  forests. 

One  mark  the  shingling  industry  left  on  the 
household.  In  the  sawing  of  blocks  there  would 
always  be  some  too  knotty  or  gnarled  to  split  into 
shingles.  These  were  what  were  known  in  the 
vernacular  as  "  on-marchantable  shingle-bolts." 
They  formed  in  many  a  pioneer's  home  and  in 
many  a  pioneer  school-house  good  solid  seats  for 
children  and  even  grown  people  to  sit  on.  And 
even  in  pioneer  meeting-houses  these  blocks  could 
sometimes  be  seen. 

Other  fittings  for  the  house  were  whittled  out. 
Long,  heavy,  wooden  hinges  were  cut  from  horn- 
beam for  cupboard  and  closet  doors ;  even  shed 
doors  were  hung  on  wooden  hinges  as  were  house 
doors  in  the  earliest  colonial  days.  Door-latches 
were  made  of  wood,  also  oblong  buttons  to  fasten 
chamber  and  cupboard  doors. 

New  England  housekeepers  prized  the  smooth, 
close-grained  bowls  which  the  Indians  made  from 
the  veined  and  mottled  knots  of  maple-wood.  They 


Jack-knife  Industries 


were  valued  at  what  seems  high  prices  for  wooden 
utensils  and  were  often  named  and  bequeathed  in 
wills.  Maple-wood  has  been  used  and  esteemed  by 
many  nations  for  cups  and  bowls.  The  old  Eng- 
lish and  German  vessel  known  as  a  mazer  was  made 
of  maple-wood,  often  bound  and  tipped  with  silver. 


Indian  Knot-bowls  and  Mortar 


Spenser  speaks  in  his  Shepheard*  s  Calendar  of 
"  a  mazer  yrought  of  the  maple  wood."  A  well- 
known  specimen  in  England  bears  the  legend  in 
Gothic  text :  — 

"In  the  Name  of  the  Trinitie 
Fille  the  kup  and  drinke  to  me." 

Sometimes  a  specially  skilful  Yankee  would  rival 
the  Indians  in  shaping  and  whittling  out  these 
bowls.    I  have  seen  two  really  beautiful  ones  carved 


320  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


with  double  initials,  and  one  with  a  Scriptural 
reference,  said  to  be  the  work  of  a  lover  for  his 
bride.  Another  token  of  affection  and  skill  from 
the  whittler  were  carved  busks,  which  were  the 
broad  and  strong  strips  of  wood  placed  in  corsets 
or  stays  to  help  to  form  and  preserve  the  long- 
waisted,  stiff  figure  then  fashionable.  One  carved 
busk  bears  initials  and  an  appropriately  sentimental 
design  of  arrows  and  hearts. 

On  the  rim  of  spinning-wheels,  on  shuttles,  swifts, 
and  on  niddy-noddys  or  hand-reels  I  have  seen 
lettering  by  the  hands  of  rustic  lovers.  A  finely 
carved  legend  on  a  hand-reel  reads  :  — 

"  Polly  Greene,  Her  Reel. 

Count  your  threads  right 
If  you  reel  in  the  night 
When  I  am  far  away. 

June,  1777." 

Perhaps  some  Revolutionary  soldier  gave  this  as 
a  parting  gift  to  his  sweetheart  on  the  eve  of  battle. 

On  his  powder-horn  the  rustic  carver  bestowed 
his  best  and  daintiest  work.  Emblem  both  of  war 
and  of  sport,  it  seemed  worthy  of  being  shaped  into 
the  highest  expression  of  his  artistic  longing.  A 
chapter,  even  a  book,  might  be  filled  with  the 
romantic  history  and  representations  of  American 


Jack-knife  I  ndustries 


321 


powder-horns ;  patriotism,  sentiment,  and  advent- 
ure shed  equal  halos  over  them.  Months  of  the 
patient  work  of  every  spare  moment  was  spent  in 
beautifying  them,  and  their  quaintness,  variety,  and 
individuality  are  a  never-ceasing  delight  to  the  an- 
tiquary. Maps,  plans,  legends,  verses,  portraits, 
landscapes,  family  history,  crests,  dates  of  births, 
marriages,  and  deaths,  lists  of  battles,  patriotic 
and  religious  sentiments,  all  may  be  found  on 
powder-horns.  They  have  in  many  cases  proved 
valuable  historical  records,  and  have  sometimes 
been  the  only  records  of  events.  Mr.  Rufus  A. 
Grider,  of  Canajoharie,  has  made  colored  drawings 
of  about  five  hundred  of  these  powder-horns,  and 
of  canteens  or  drinking-horns.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  the  ordinary  processes  of  book-illustration  give 
too  scant  suggestion  of  the  variety,  beauty,  and 
delicacy  of  their  decoration,  to  permit  the  repro- 
duction of  some  of  these  powder-horns  in  these 
pages. 

These  habits  of  employing  the  spare  moments  of 
farm-life  in  the  manufacture  from  wood  of  farm  im- 
plements and  various  aids  to  domestic  comfort, 
were  not  peculiar  to  New  England  farmers,  nor 
invented  by  them.  The  old  English  farmer-author, 
Thomas  Tusser,  in  his  rhymed  book,  Five  Hundred 
Points  of  Good  Husbandry,  written  in  the  sixteenth 

Y 


322  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


century  (which  Southey  declared  to  be  one  of  the 
most  curious  and  formerly  one  of  the  most  popular 
books  in  our  language),  was  careful  to  give  instruc- 
tions in  his  "  remembrances  "  and  "  doings  "  as  to 
similar  industries  on  the  English  farm  and  manor 
house.    He  says:  — 

"Yokes,  forks,  and  such  other  let  bailie  spy  out 
And  gather  the  same  as  he  walketh  about; 
And  after,  at  leisure,  let  this  be  his  hire, 
To  beath  them  and  trim  them  at  home  by  the  fire." 

"To  beath  is  to  heat  unseasoned  wood  to  harden 
and  straighten  it. 

"  If  hop-yard  or  orchard  ye  mean  for  to  have, 
For  hop-poles  and  crotches  in  lopping  go  save. 

"Save  elm,  ash,  and  crab  tree  for  cart  and  for  plow, 
Save  step  for  a  stile  of  the  crotch  of  a  bough; 
Save  hazel  for  forks,  save  sallow  for  rake  : 
Save  hulver  and  thorn,  thereof  flail  for  to  make." 

The  Massachusetts  Bay  settlers  came  chiefly  from 
the  vicinity,  many  from  the  same  county,  where 
Tusser  lived  and  farmed,  and  where  his  points  of 
good  husbandry  were  household  words ;  so  they 
had  in  their  English  homes  as  had  their  grand- 
fathers before  them,  the  knowledge  and  habit  of 
saving  and  utilizing  the  various  woods  on  the  farm, 
and  of  occupying  every  spare  minute  with  the  use- 


Jack-knife  Industries 


323 


ful  jack-knife.  The  varied  and  bountiful  trees  of 
the  New  World  stimulated  and  emphasized  the  whit- 
tling habit  until  it  became  universally  accepted  as  a 
distinguishing  New  England  characteristic,  a  Yankee 
trait. 

This  constant  employment  of  every  moment  of 
the  waking  hours  contributed  to  impart  to  New 
Englanders  a  regard  and  method  of  life  which 
is  spoken  of  by  many  outsiders  with  contempt, 
namely,  a  closely  girded  and  invariable  habit  of 
economy.  Children  brought  up  in  this  way  knew 
the  value  of  everything  in  the  household,  knew  the 
time  it  took  to  produce  it,  for  they  had  labored 
themselves,  and  they  grew  to  take  care  of  small 
things,  not  to  squander  and  waste  what  they  had 
been  so  long  at  work  on.  This,  instead  of  being  a 
thing  to  sneer  at,  is  one  of  the  very  best  elements  in 
a  community,  one  of  the  best  securities  of  character. 
For  sudden  leaps  to  fortune  are  given  to  but  few, 
and  are  seldom  lasting,  and  the  results  of  sudden 
inflations  are  more  disastrous  even  to  a  community 
than  to  isolated  individuals,  as  may  be  abundantly 
proved  by  the  early  history  of  Virginia.  It  was  not 
meanness  that  made  the  wiry  New  England  farmer 
so  cautious  and  exacting  in  trade,  when  the  pennies 
he  saved  sent  his  son  through  college.  It  was  not 
meanness  which  made  him  refuse  to  spend  money; 


324  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


he  had  no  money  to  spend,  and  it  was  a  high  sense 
of  honor  that  kept  him  from  running  in  debt.  It 
was  not  meanness  which  so  justly  ordered  conditions 
and  cared  for  the  unfortunate  that  even  in  those 
days  of  horrible  drunkenness  often  there  would  not 
be  a  pauper  in  the  entire  village.  It  has  been  a  re- 
proach that  in  some  towns  the  few  town  poor  were 
vendued  out  to  be  cared  for;  the  mode  was  harsh  in 
its  wording,  and  unfeeling  in  method,  but  in  reality 
the  pauper  found  a  home.  I  have  known  cases 
where  the  pauper  was  not  only  supported  but 
cherished  in  the  families  to  whose  lot  she  fell. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


TRAVEL,   TRANSPORTATION,   AND  TAVERNS 

WHEREVER  the  earliest  colonists  set- 
tled in  America,  they  had  to  adopt  the 
modes  of  travel  and  the  ways  of  get- 
ting from  place  to  place  of  their  prede- 
cessors and  new  neighbors,  the  Indians.  These 
were  first  —  and  generally  —  to  walk  on  their 
own  stout  legs  ;  second,  to  go  wherever  they  could 
by  water,  in  boats.  In  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
where  for  a  long  time  nearly  all  settlers  tried  to 
build  their  homes  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and 
bays,  the  travel  was  almost  entirely  by  boats  ;  as  it 
was  between  settlements  on  all  the  great  rivers,  the 
Hudson,  Connecticut,  and  Merrimac. 

Between  the  large  settlements  in  Massachusetts  — 
Boston,  Salem,  and  Plymouth  —  travel  was  prefera- 
bly, when  the  weather  permitted,  in  boats.  The  colo- 
nists went  in  canoes,  or  pinnaces,  shaped  and  made 
exactly  like  the  birch-bark  canoes  of  the  Canadian 
Indians  to-day  ;  and  in  dugouts,  which  were  formed 
from  hollowed  pine-logs,  usually  about  twenty  feet 

325 


326  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


long  and  two  or  three  feet  wide  ;  both  of  these 
were  made  for  them  by  the  Indians.  It  was  said 
that  one  Indian,  working  alone,  felling  the  pine-tree 
by  the  primitive  way  of  burning  and  scraping  off 
the  charred  parts  with  a  stone  tool  called  a  celt  (for 
the  Indians  had  no  iron  or  steel  axes),  then  cutting 
off  the  top  in  the  same  manner,  then  burning  out 
part  of  the  interior,  then  burning  and  scraping  and 
shaping  it  without  and  within,  could  make  one  of 
these  dugouts  in  three  weeks.  The  Indians  at 
Onondaga  still  make  the  wooden  mortars  they  use 
in  the  same  tedious  way. 

When  the  white  men  came  to  America  in  great 
ships,  the  Indians  marvelled  much  at  the  size,  think- 
ing they  were  hollowed  out  of  tree-trunks  as  were 
the  dugouts,  and  wondered  where  such  vast  trees 
grew. 

The  Swedish  scientific  traveller,  Kalm,  who  was  in 
America  in  1748,  was  delighted  with  the  Indian 
canoes  and  dugouts.  He  found  the  Swede  settlers 
using  them  constantly  to  go  long  distances  to  mar- 
ket.   He  said  :  — 

"  They  usually  carry  six  persons  ■  who  however  by  no 
means  must  be  unruly,  but  sit  at  the  bottom  of  the  canoe 
in  the  quietest  manner  possible  lest  the  boat  upset.  They 
are  narrow,  round  below,  have  no  keel  and  may  be  easily 
overset.    So  when  the  wind  is  brisk  the  people  make  for 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  327 


the  land.  Larger  dugouts  were  made  for  war-canoes 
which  would  carry  thirty  or  forty  savages." 

These  boats  usually  kept  close  to  the  shore,  both 
in  calm  and  windy  weather,  though  the  natives  were 
not  afraid  to  go  many  miles  out  to  sea  in  the 
dugouts. 

The  lightness  of  the  birch-bark  canoe  made  it 
specially  desirable  where  there  were  such  frequent 
overland  transfers.  It  was  and  is  a  beautiful  and 
perfect  expression  of  natural  and  wild  life  ;  as  Long- 
fellow wrote  :  — 

"  .  .  .  the  forest's  life  was  in  it, 
All  its  mystery  and  magic, 
All  the  lightness  of  the  birch  tree, 
All  the  toughness  of  the  cedar, 
All  the  larch's  supple  sinews, 
And  it  floated  on  the  river 
Like  a  yellow  leaf  in  autumn." 

The  French  governor  and  missionaries  all  saw 
and  admired  these  birch-bark  canoes.  Father  Char- 
levoix wrote  a  beautiful  and  vivid  description  of 
them.  All  the  early  travellers  noted  their  ticklish 
balance.  Wood,  writing  in  1634,  said,  "  In  these 
cockling  fly-boats  an  Englishman  can  scarce  sit 
without  a  fearful  tottering,"  and  Madam  Knights  a 
century  later  said  in  her  vivid  English  of  a  trip  in 
one  :  — 


328  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


"  The  Cannoo  was  very  small  and  shallow,  which  greatly 
terrify'd  me  and  caused  me  to  be  very  circumspect,  sitting 
with  my  hands  fast  on  each  side,  my  eyes  steady,  not  dar- 
ing so  much  as  to  lodge  my  tongue  a  hair's  bredth  more  on 
one  side  of  my  mouth  than  tother,  nor  so  much  as  think 
on  Lott's  wife,  for  a  very  thought  would  have  oversett  our 
wherry." 

When  boats  and  vessels  were  built  by  the  colo- 
nists, they  were  in  forms  or  had  names  but  little 
used  to-day.    Shallop,  ketch,  pink,  and  snow  are 


A  Gundalow  at  the  Landing* 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  329 


rarely  heard.  Sloops  were  early  built,  but  schooner 
is  a  modern  term.  Batteau  and  periagua  still  are 
used ;  and  the  gundalow,  picturesque  with  its  lateen 
sail,  still  is  found  on  our  northern  New  England 
shores. 

The  Indians  had  narrow  foot-paths  in  many  places 
through  the  woods.  On  them  foot-travel  was  pos- 
sible, though  many  estuaries  and  rivers  intersected 
the  coast;  for  the  narrow  streams  could  be  crossed 
on  natural  ford-ways,  or  on  rude  bridges  of  fallen 
trees,  which  the  English  government  ordered  to  be 
put  in  place. 

As  late  as  1631  Governor  Endicott  would  not  go 
from  Salem  to  Boston  to  visit  Governor  Winthrop 
because  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  wade  across 
the  fords.  He  might  have  done  as  Governor  Win- 
throp did  the  next  year  when  he  went  to  Plymouth 
to  visit  Governor  Bradford  (and  it  took  him  two 
days  to  get  there) ;  he  might  have  been  carried 
across  the  fords  pickaback  by  an  Indian  guide. 

The  Indian  paths  were  good,  though  only  two 
or  three  feet  wide,  and  in  many  places  the  savages 
kept  the  woods  clear  from  underbrush  by  burning 
over  large  tracts.  When  King  Philip's  War  took 
place,  all  the  land  around  the  Indian  settlements  in 
Narragansett  and  eastern  Massachusetts  was  so 
free  of  brush  that  horsemen  could  ride  everywhere 


330  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

freely  through  the  woods.  Some  of  the  old  paths 
are  famous  in  our  history.  The  most  so  was  the 
Bay  Path,  which  ran  from  Cambridge  through 
Marlborough,  Worcester,  Oxford,  Brookfield,  and 
on  to  Springfield  and  the  Connecticut  River.  Hol- 
land's beautiful  story  called  by  the  name  of  the 
path  gives  its  history,  its  sentiment,  and  much  that 
happened  on  it  in  olden  times. 

When  new  paths  were  cut  through  the  forests, 
the  settlers  "  blazed  "  the  trees,  that  is,  they  chopped 
a  piece  of  the  bark  off  tree  after  tree  standing  on 
the  side  of  the  way.  Thus  the  "  blazes  "  stood  out 
clear  and  white  in  the  dark  shadows  of  the  forests, 
like  welcome  guide-posts,  showing  the  traveller  his 
way.  In  Maryland  roads  turning  off  to  a  church 
were  marked  by  slips  or  blazes  cut  near  the  ground. 

In  Maryland  and  Virginia  what  were  known  as, 
and  indeed  are  still  called,  rolling-roads  were  cut 
through  the  forest.  They  were  narrow  roads  adown 
which  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  fitted  with  axles,  could 
be  drawn  or  rolled  from  inland  plantations  to  the 
river  or  bay  side;  sometimes  the  hogsheads  were 
simply  rolled  by  human  propulsion,  not  dragged 
on  these  roads. 

The  broader  rivers  soon  had  canoe-ferries.  The 
first  regular  Massachusetts  ferry  from  Charlestown 
to  Boston  was  in  1639.    ^  carried  passengers  for 


3 

o 

o 

OJ 

c 

c 

o 

u 

,£3 


c 

o 

>^ 

O 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  331 

threepence  apiece.  From  Chelsea  to  Boston  was 
fourpence.  In  1636  the  Cambridge  ferryman 
charged  but  half  a  penny,  as  so  many  wished  to 
attend  the  Thursday  lecture  in  the  Boston  churches. 
We  learn  from  the  Massachusetts  Laws  that  often 
a  rider  had  to  let  his  horse  cross  by  swimming  over, 
being  guided  from  the  ferry-boat ;  he  then  paid  no 
ferriage  for  the  horse.  After  wheeled  vehicles  were 
used,  these  ferries  were  not  large  enough  to  carry 
them  properly.  Often  the  carriage  had  to  be  taken 
apart,  or  towed  over,  while  the  horse  had  his  fore 
feet  in  one  canoe-ferry  and  his  hind  feet  in  another, 
the  two  canoes  being  lashed  together.  The  rope- 
ferry  lingered  till  our  own  day,  and  was  ever  a  pict- 
uresque sight  on  the  river.  As  soon  as  roads  were 
built  there  were,  of  course,  bridges  and  cart-ways, 
but  these  were  only  between  the  closely  neigh- 
boring towns.  Usually  the  bridges  were  merely 
"  horse-bridges  "  with  a  railing  on  but  one  side. 

After  the  period  of  walking  and  canoe-riding  had 
had  its  day,  nearly  all  land  travel  for  a  century  was 
on  horseback,  just  as  it  was  in  England  at  that 
date.  In  1672  there  were  only  six  stage-coaches 
in  the  whole  of  Great  Britain ;  and  a  man  wrote 
a  pamphlet  protesting  that  they  encouraged  too 
much  travel.  Boston  then  had  one  private  coach. 
Women  and  children  usually  rode  seated  on  a  pil- 


33 2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


lion  behind  a  man.  A  pillion  was  a  padded  cushion 
with  straps  which  sometimes  had  on  one  side  a  sort 
of  platform-stirrup.  One  way  of  progress  which 
would  help  four  persons  ride  part  of  their  journey 
was  what  was  called  the  ride-and-tie  system.  Two 
of  the  four  persons  who  were  travelling  started  on 
their  road  on  foot ;  two  mounted  on  the  saddle  and 
pillion,  rode  about  a  mile,  dismounted,  tied  the 
horse,  and  walked  on.  When  the  two  who  had 
started  on  foot  reached  the  waiting  horse,  they 
mounted,  rode  on  past  the  other  couple  for  a  mile 
or  so,  dismounted,  tied,  and  walked  on;  and  so  on. 
It  was  also  a  universal  and  courteous  as  it  was  a 
pleasant  custom  for  friends  to  ride  out  on  the  road 
a  few  miles  with  any  departing  guest  or  friend,  and 
then  bid  them  God  speed  agatewards. 

In  1704  a  Boston  schoolmistress  named  Madam 
Knights  rode  from  Boston  to  New  York  on  horse- 
back. She  was  probably  the  first  woman  to  make 
the  journey,  and  it  was  a  great  and  daring  undertak- 
ing. She  had  as  a  companion  the  "post."  This 
was  the  mail-carrier,  who  also  rode  on  horseback. 
One  of  his  duties  was  to  assist  and  be  kind  to  all 
persons  who  cared  to  journey  in  his  company.  The 
first  regular  mail  started  from  New  York  to  Boston 
on  January  1,  1673.  The  postman  carried  two 
"  portmantles,"  which  were  crammed  with  letters 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  333 


and  parcels.  He  did  not  change  horses  till  he 
reached  Hartford.  He  was  ordered  to  look  out 
and  report  the  condition  of  all  ferries,  fords,  and 
roads.  He  had  to  be  "active,  stout,  indefatigable, 
and  honest."  When  he  delivered  his  mail  it  was 
laid  on  a  table  at  an  inn,  and  any  one  who  wished 
looked  over  all  the  letters,  then  took  and  paid  the 
postage  (which  was  very  high)  on  any  addressed  to 
himself.  It  was  usually  about  a  month  from  this 
setting  out  of  "the  post"  in  winter,  till  his  return. 
As  late  certainly  as  1730  the  mail  was  carried  from 
New  York  to  Albany  in  the  winter  by  a  "foot- 
post."  He  went  up  the  Hudson  River,  and  lonely 
enough  it  must  have  been ;  probably  he  skated  up 
when  the  ice  was  good.  This  mail  was  only  sent 
at  irregular  intervals. 

In  1760  there  were  but  eight  mails  a  year  from 
Philadelphia  to  the  Potomac  River,  and  even  then 
the  post-rider  need  not  start  till  he  had  received 
enough  letters  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  trip.  It 
was  not  till  postal  affairs  were  placed  in  the  capable 
and  responsible  hands  of  Benjamin  Franklin  that 
there  were  any  regular  or  trustworthy  mails. 

The  journal  and  report  of  Hugh  Finlay,  a  post- 
office  surveyor  in  1773  of  the  mail  service  from 
Quebec  to  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  tells  of  the  vicis- 
situdes of  mail-matter  even  at  that  later  day.  In 


334  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

some  places  the  deputy,  as  the  postmaster  was 
called,  had  no  office,  so  his  family  rooms  were 
constantly  invaded.  Occasionally  a  tavern  served  as 
post-office ;  letters  were  thrown  down  on  a  table 
and  if  the  weather  was  bad,  or  smallpox  raged,  or 
the  deputy  were  careless,  they  were  not  forwarded 
for  many  days.  Letters  that  arrived  might  lie  on 
the  table  or  bar-counter  for  days  for  any  one  to  pull 
over,  until  the  owner  chanced  to  arrive  and  claim 
them.  Good  service  could  scarcely  be  expected 
from  any  deputy,  for  his  salary  was  paid  according 
to  the  number  of  letters  coming  to  his  office ;  and 
as  private  mail-carriage  constantly  went  on,  though 
forbidden  by  British  law,  the  deputy  suffered. 
"  If  an  information  were  lodg'd  but  an  informer 
wou'd  get  tar'd  and  feather'd,  no  jury  wou'd  find 
the  fact."  The  government-riders  were  in  truth 
the  chief  offenders.  Any  ship's  captain,  or  wagon- 
driver,  or  post-rider  could  carry  merchandise ; 
therefore  small  sham  bundles  of  paper,  straw,  or 
chips  would  be  tied  to  a  large  sealed  packet  or 
letter,  and  both  be  exempt  from  postage  paid  to  the 
Crown. 

The  post-rider  between  Boston  and  Newport 
loaded  his  carriage  with  bundles  real  and  sham, 
which  delayed  him  long  in  delivery.  He  bought 
and  sold  on  commission  along  this  road ;  and  in 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  335 


violation  of  law  he  carried  many  letters  to  his  own 
profit.  He  took  twenty-six  hours  to  go  eighty 
miles.  Had  the  Newport  deputy  dared  to  com- 
plain, he  would  have  incurred  much  odium  and 
been  declared  a  "friend  of  slavery  and  oppression." 

"  Old  Herd,"  the  rider  from  Saybrook  to  New 
York,  had  been  in  the  service  forty-six  years  and 
had  made  a  good  estate.  He  coolly  took  postage 
of  all  way-letters  as  his  perquisite ;  was  a  money 
carrier  and  transferrer,  all  advantage  to  his  own 
pocket ;  carried  merchandise ;  returned  horses  for 
travellers  ;  and  when  Finlay  saw  him  he  was  waiting 
for  a  yoke  of  oxen  he  was  paid  for  fetching  along 
some  miles.  A  Pennsylvania  post-rider,  an  aged 
man,  occupied  himself  as  he  slowly  jogged  along  by 
knitting  mittens  and  stockings.  Not  always  were 
mail  portmanteaux  properly  locked ;  hence  many 
letters  were  lost  and  the  pulling  in  and  out  of 
bundles  defaced  the  letters. 

Of  course  so  much  horseback  riding  made  it 
necessary  to  have  horse-blocks  in  front  of  nearly 
all  houses.  In  course  of  time  stones  were  set  every 
mile  on  the  principal  roads  to  tell  the  distance 
from  town  to  town.  Benjamin  Franklin  set  mile- 
stones the  entire  way  on  the  post-road  from  Boston 
to  Philadelphia.  He  rode  in  a  chaise  over  the 
road ;  and  a  machine  which  he  had  invented  was 


336  Home  Life  in -Colonial  Days 


attached  to  the  chaise ;  and  it  was  certainly  the  first 
cyclometer  that  went  on  that  road,  over  which  so 
many  cyclometers  have  passed  during  the  last  five 
years.  It  measured  the  miles  as  he  travelled. 
When  he  had  ridden  a  mile  he  stopped ;  from  a 
heavy  cart  loaded  with  milestones,  which  kept 
alongside  the  chaise,  a  stone  was  dropped  which 
was  afterwards  set  by  a  gang  of  men. 

A  number  of  old  colonial  milestones  are  still  stand- 
ing. There  is  one  in  Worcester,  on  what  was  the 
"  New  Connecticut  Path "  ;  one  in  Springfield  on 
the  "  Bay  Path,"  and  there  are  several  of  Benjamin 
Franklin's  setting,  one  being  at  Stratford,  Connecticut. 

The  inland  transportation  of  freight  was  carried 
on  in  the  colonies  just  as  it  was  in  Europe,  on  the 
backs  of  pack-horses.  Very  interesting  historical 
evidence  in  relation  to  the  methods  of  transportation 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  may  be  found 
in  the  ingenious  advertisement  and  address  with  which 
Benjamin  Franklin  raised  transportation  facilities  for 
Braddock's  army  in  1755.  This  is  one  of  his  most 
characteristic  literary  productions.  Braddock's  ap- 
peals to  the  Philadelphia  Assembly  for  a  rough 
wagon-road  and  wagons  for  the  army  succeeded  in 
raising  only  twenty-five  wagons.  Franklin  visited 
him  in  his  desolate  plight  and  agreed  to  assist  him, 
and  appealed  to  the  public  to  send  to  him  for  the 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  337 


use  of  the  army  a  hundred  and  fifty  wagons  and 
fifteen  hundred  pack-horses  ;  for  the  latter  Franklin 
offered  to  pay  two  shillings  a  day  each,  as  long  as 
used,  if  provided  with  a  pack-saddle.  Twenty 
horses  were  sent  with  their  loads  to  the  camp  as 
gifts  to  the  British  officers.  As  a  good  and  definite 
list  of  the  load  one  of  these  pack-horses  was  expected 
to  carry  (as  well  as  a  record  of  the  kind  of  provisions 
grateful  to  an  officer  of  that  day)  let  me  give  an 
inventory  :  — 


Six  pounds  loaf-sugar, 
Six  pounds  muscovado  sugar, 
One  pound  green  tea, 
One  pound  bohea  tea, 
Six  pounds  ground  coffee, 
Six  pounds  chocolate, 
One-half  chest  best  white 

biscuit, 
One-half  pound  pepper, 
One  quart  white  vinegar, 
Two  dozen  bottles  old  Ma- 
deira wine. 


Two  gallons  Jamaica  spirits, 
One  bottle  flour  of  mustard, 
Two  well-cured  hams, 
One-half      dozen  cured 

tongues, 
Six  pounds  rice, 
Six  pounds  raisins, 
One  Gloucester  cheese, 
One  keg  containing  20  lbs. 

best  butter. 


The  wagons  and  horses  were  all  lost  after  Brad- 
dock's  defeat,  or  were  seized  by  the  French  and 
Indians,  and  Franklin  had  many  anxious  months  of 
responsibility  for  damages  from  the  owners;  but.  I 
am  confident  the  officers  got  all  the  provisions, 


338  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Franklin  gathered  the  wagons  in  York  and  Lancas- 
ter ;  no  two  English  shires  could  have  done  better 
at  that  time  than  did  these  Pennsylvania  counties. 

In  Pennsylvania,  western  Virginia,  and  Ohio, 
pack-horses  long  were  used,  and  a  pretty  picture  is 
drawn  by  Doddridge  and  many  other  local  historians 
of  the  trains  of  these  horses  with  their  gay  collars 
and  stuffed  bells,  as,  laden  with  furs,  ginseng,  and 
snakeroot,  they  filed  down  the  mountain  roads  to 
the  towns,  and  came  home  laden  with  salt,  nails,  tea, 
pewter  plates,  etc.  At  night  the  horses  were  hob- 
bled, and  the  clappers  of  their  bells  were  loosened; 
the  ringing  prevented  the  horses  being  lost.  The 
animals  started  on  their  journey  with  two  hun- 
dred pounds'  burden,  of  which  part  was  provender 
for  horse  and  man,  which  was  left  at  convenient  re- 
lays to  be  taken  up  on  the  way  home.  Two  men 
could  manage  fifteen  pack-horses,  which  were  teth- 
ered successively  each  to  the  pack-saddle  of  the  one 
in  front  of  him.  One  man  led  the  foremost  horse, 
and  the  driver  followed  the  file  to  watch  the  packs 
and  urge  on  the  laggards.  Their  numbers  were 
vast ;  five  hundred  were  counted  at  one  time  in 
Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  going  westward.  It  was  a 
costly  method  of  transportation.  Mr.  Howland 
says  that  in  1784  the  expense  of  carrying  a  ton's 
weight  from  Philadelphia  to  Erie  by  pack-horses 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  339 


was  $249.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  routes 
taken  by  those  men,  skilled  only  in  humble  wood- 
craft, were  the  same  ones  followed  in  later  years  by 
the  engineers  of  the  turnpikes  and  railroads. 

As  the  roads  were  somewhat  better  in  Pennsyl- 
vania than  in  some  other  provinces,  and  more 
needed,  so  wagons  soon  were  far  greater  in  num- 
ber; indeed,  during  the  Revolution  nearly  all  the 
wagons  and  horses  used  by  the  army  came  from 
that  state.  There  was  developed  in  Pennsylvania 
by  the  soft  soil  of  these  many  roads,  as  well  as  by 
various  topographical  conditions,  a  splendid  ex- 
ample of  a  true  American  vehicle,  one  which  was 
for  a  long  time  the  highest  type  of  a  commodious 
freight-carrier  in  this  or  any  other  country  —  the 
Conestoga  wagon,  "  the  finest  wagon  the  world  has 
ever  known."  They  were  first  used  in  any  consid- 
erable number  about  1760.  They  had  broad  wheel- 
tires,  and  one  of  the  peculiarities  was  a  decided 
curve  in  the  bottom,  analogous  to  that  of  a  galley 
or  canoe,  which  made  it  specially  fitted  for  travers- 
ing mountain  roads ;  for  this  curved  bottom  pre- 
vented freight  from  slipping  too  far  at  either  end 
when  going  up  or  down  hill.  This  body  was  uni- 
versally painted  a  bright  blue,  and  furnished  with 
sideboards  of  an  equally  vivid  red.  The  wagon- 
bodies  were  arched  over  with  six  or  eight  stately 


34°  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Conestoga  Wagon 


bows,  of  which  the  middle  ones  were  the  lowest, 
and  the  others  rose  gradually  to  front  and  rear  till 
the  end  bows  were  nearly  of  equal  height.  Over 
them  all  was  stretched  a  strong,  white,  hempen 
cover,  well  corded  down  at  the  sides  and  ends. 
These  wagons  could  be  loaded  up  to  the  bows,  and 
could  carry  four  to  six  tons  in  weight.  The  rates 
between  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburgh  were  about 
two  dollars  a  hundred  pounds.  The  horses,  four 
to  seven  in  number,  were  magnificent,  often  matched 
throughout ;  some  were  all  dapple-gray,  or  all  bay. 
The  harnesses,  of  best  materials  and  appearance, 
were  costly ;   each  horse  had  a  large  housing  of 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  341 


deerskin  or  heavy  bearskin  trimmed  with  deep  scar- 
let fringe  ;  while  the  head-stall  was  tied  with  bunches 
of  gay  ribbons.  Bell-teams  were  common  ;  each 
horse  except  the  saddle-horse  then  had  a  full  set  of 
bells  tied  with  high-colored  ribbons. 

The  horses  were  highly  fed  ;  and  when  the  driver, 
seated  on  the  saddle-horse,  drew  rein  on  the  prancing 
leader  and  flourished  his  fine  bull-hide  London 
whip,  making  the  silk  snap  and  tingle  round  the 
leader's  ears,  every  horse  started  off  with  the  pon- 
derous load  with  a  grace  and  ease  that  was  beautiful 
to  see. 

The  wagons  were  first  used  in  the  Conestoga  val- 
ley, and  most  extensively  used  there ;  and  the  sleek 
powerful  draught-horses  known  as  the  Conestoga 
breed  were  attached  to  them,  hence  their  name. 
These  teams  were  objects  of  pride  to  their  owners, 
objects  of  admiration  and  attention  wherever  they 
appeared,  and  are  objects  of  historical  interest  and 
satisfaction  to-day. 

Often  a  prosperous  teamster  would  own  several 
Conestoga  wagons,  and  driving  the  leading  and 
handsomest  team  himself  would  start  off  his  proud 
procession.  From  twenty  to  a  hundred  would  fol- 
low in  close  row.  Large  numbers  were  constantly 
passing.  At  one  time  ten  thousand  ran  from  Phila- 
delphia to  other  towns.    Josiah  Quincy  told  of  the 


342  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


road  at  Lancaster  being  lined  with  them.  The 
scene  on  the  road  between  the  Cumberland  valley 
and  Greensburg,  where  there  are  five  distinct  and 
noble  mountain  ranges,  —  Tuscarora,  Rays  Hill, 
Alleghany,  Laurel  Hills,  and  Chestnut  Ridge, — 
when  a  long  train  of  white-topped  Conestoga  wagons 
appeared  and  wound  along  the  mountain  sides,  was 
picturesque  and  beautiful  with  a  charm  unparalleled 
to-day. 

"  Many  a  fleet  of  them 

In  one  long  upward  w.inding  row. 

It  ever  was  a  noble  sight 

As  from  the  distant  mountain  height 

Or  quiet  valley  far  below, 
Their  snow-white  covers  looked  like  sail." 

There  were  two  classes  of  Conestoga  wagons  and 
wagoners.  The  u  Regulars,"  or  men  who  made  it 
their  constant  and  only  business ;  and  "  Militia." 
A  local  poet  thus  describes  these  outfits  :  — 

"  Militia-men  drove  narrow  treads, 
Four  horses  and  plain  red  Dutch  beds, 
And  always  carried  grub  and  feed." 

They  were  farmers  or  common  teamsters  who 
made  occasional  trips,  usually  in  winter  time,  and 
did  some  carriage  for  others,  and  drove  but  four 
horses  with  their  wagons.    The  "  Regulars  "  had 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  343 


broad  tires,  carried  no  feed  for  horses  nor  food  for 
themselves,  but  both  classes  of  teamsters  carried 
coarse  mattresses  and  blankets,  which  they  spread 
side  by  side,  and  row  after  row,  on  the  bar-room 


"American  Stage-wagon" 


floor  of  the  tavern  at  which  they  "  put  up."  Their 
horses  when  unharnessed  fed  from  long  troughs 
hitched  to  the  wagon-pole.  The  wagons  that  plied 
between  the  Delaware  and  the  small  city  of  Pitts- 
burgh were  called  Pitt-teams. 

The  life  of  the  Conestoga  wagon  did  not  end 


344  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


even  with  the  establishment  of  railroads  in  the 
Eastern  states  ;  farther  and  farther  west  it  penetrated, 
ever  chosen  by  emigrants  and  travellers  to  the 
frontiers  ;  and  at  last  in  its  old  age  it  had  an  equal 
career  of  usefulness  as  the  "  prairie-schooner/'  in 
which  vast  numbers  of  families  safely  crossed  the 
prairies  of  our  far  West.  The  white  tilts  of  the 
wagons  thus  passed  and  repassed  till  our  own  day. 

Four-wheeled  wagons  were  but  little  used  in  New 
England  till  after  the  War  of  1812.  Two-wheeled 
carts  and  sleds  carried  inland  freight,  which  was 
chiefly  transported  over  the  snow  in  the  winter. 

The  Conestoga  wagon  of  the  past  century  was  far 
ahead  of  anything  in  England  at  that  date ;  indeed 
Mr.  Ca  W.  Ernst,  the  best  authority  I  know  on 
the  subject,  says  we  had  in  every  way  far  better 
traffic  facilities  at  that  time  than  England.  In  other 
ways  we  excelled.  Though  Finlay  found  many 
defects  in  the  postal  service  in  1773,  he  also  found 
the  Stavers  mail-coach  plying  between  Boston  and 
Portsmouth  long  before  England  had  such  a  thing. 
Mr.  Ernst  says  :  "  The  Stavers  mail-coach  was  stun- 
ning ;  used  six  horses  when  roads  were  bad,  and 
never  was  late.  They  had  no  mail-coaches  in  Eng- 
land till  after  the  Revolution,  and  I  believe  Massa- 
chusetts men  introduced  the  idea  in  England. " 

We  are  apt  to  grow  retrospectively  sentimental 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  345 


over  the  delights,  aesthetic  and  physical,  of  ancient 
stage-coach  days.  Those  days  are  not  so  ancient  as 
many  fancy.  The  first  stage-coach  which  ran  di- 
rectly from  Philadelphia  to  New  York  in  1766  — 
and  primitive  enough  it  was  —  was  called  "the 
flying-machine,  a  good  stage-wagon  set  on  springs." 


Wayside  Inn 


Its  swift  trip  occupied  two  days  in  good  weather. 
It  was  but  a  year  later  than  the  original  stage-coach 
between  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow.  At  that  time, 
in  favorable  weather,  the  coach  between  London 
and  Edinburgh  made  the  trip  in  thirteen  days. 
The  London  mail-coach  in  its  palmiest  days  could 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


make  this  trip  in  forty-three  hours  and  a  half.  As 
early  as  171 8  Jonathan  Wardwell  advertised  that  he 
would  run  a  stage  to  Rhode  Island.  In  1767  a 
stage-coach  was  run  during  the  summer  months 
between  Boston  and  Providence,  in  1770  a  stage- 
chaise  started  between  Salem  and  Boston  and  a 
post-chaise  between  Boston  and  Portsmouth  the 
following  year.  As  early  as  1732  some  common- 
carrier  lines  had  wagons  which  would  carry  a  few 
passengers.  Let  us  hear  the  testimony  of  some 
travellers  as  to  the  glorious  pleasure  of  stage-coach 
travelling.  Describing  a  trip  between  Boston  and 
New  York  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century 
President  Quincy  of  Harvard  College  said:  — 

"  The  carriages  were  old  and  the  shackling  and  much  of 
the  harness  made  of  ropes.  One  pair  of  horses  carried  us 
eighteen  miles.  We  generally  reached  our  resting-place 
for  the  night  if  no  accident  intervened,  at  ten  o'clock,  and 
after  a  frugal  supper  went  to  bed,  with  a  notice  that  we 
should  be  called  at  three  next  morning,  which  generally 
proved  to  be  half-past  two,  and  then,  whether  it  snowed  or 
rained,  the  traveller  must  rise  and  make  ready,  by  the  help 
of  a  horn-lantern  and  a  farthing  candle,  and  proceed  on  his 
way  over  bad  roads,  sometimes  getting  out  to  help  the 
coachman  lift  the  coach  out  of  a  quagmire  or  rut,  and 
arrived  in  New  York  after  a  week's  hard  travelling,  wonder- 
ing at  the  ease  as  well  as  the  expedition  with  which  our 
journey  was  effected." 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  347 


The  Columbia  Centinel  of  April  24,  1793,  adver- 
tised a  new  line  of  "  small  genteel  and  easy  stage- 


Old  Pigskin  and  Deerskin  Travelling-trunks 


carriages "  from  Boston  to  New  York  with  four 
inside  passengers,  and  smart  horses.  Many  of  the 
announcements  of  the  day  have  pictures  of  the 


348  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


coaches.  They  usually  resemble  market  wagons 
with  round,  canvas-covered  tops,  and  the  driver 
is  seated  outside  the  body  of  the  wagon  with 
his  feet  on  the  foot-board.  Trunks  were  small, 
covered  with  deerskin  or  pigskin,  studded  with 
brass  nails;  and  each  traveller  took  his  trunk  under 
his  seat  and  feet. 

The  poet,  Moore,  gives  in  rhyme  his  testimony 
of  Virginia  roads  in  1 800  :  — 

"  Dear  George,  though  every  bone  is  aching 

After  the  shaking 
I've  had  this  week  over  ruts  and  ridges, 

And  bridges 
Made  of  a  few  uneasy  planks, 

In  open  ranks, 
Over  rivers  of  mud  whose  names  alone 
Would  make  knock  the  knees  of  stoutest  man." 

The  traveller  Weld,  in  1795,  gave  testimony  that 
the  bridges  were  so  poor  that  the  driver  had  always 
to  stop  and  arrange  the  loose  planks  ere  he  dared 
cross,  and  he  adds:  — 

u  The  driver  frequently  had  to  call  to  the  passengers  in 
the  stage  to  lean  out  of  the  carriage  first  on  one  side  then 
on  the  other,  to  prevent  it  from  oversetting  in  the  deep 
roads  with  which  the  road  abounds.  c  Now,  gentlemen,  to 
the  right,'  upon  which  the  passengers  all  stretched  their 


Old-time  Bandboxes 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  349 


bodies  half-way  out  of  the  carriage  to  balance  on  that  side. 
1  Now,  gentlemen,  to  the  left,'  and  so  on." 

The  coach  in  which  this  pleasure  trip  was  taken 
is  shown  in  the  illustration  entitled  "  American 
Stage-wagon. "  It  is  copied  from  a  first  edition  of 
Weld y s  Travels. 

Ann  Warder,  in  her  journey  from  Philadelphia  to 
New  York  in  1759,  notes  two  overturned  and  aban- 
doned stage-wagons  at  Perth  Amboy;  and  many 
other  travellers  give  similar  testimony.  In  1796 
the  trip  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore  took  five 
days. 

The  growth  in  stage-coaches  and  travel  came  with 
the  turnpike  at  the  beginning  of  this  century.  In 
transportation  and  travel,  improvement  of  road- 
ways is  ever  associated  with  improvement  of  vehi- 
cles. The  first  extensive  turnpike  was  the  one 
between  Philadelphia  and  Lancaster,  built  in  1792. 
The  growth  and  the  cost  of  these  roads  may  be 
briefly  mentioned  by  quoting  a  statement  from  the 
annual  message  of  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania 
in  1838,  that  that  commonwealth  then  had  two 
thousand  five  hundred  miles  of  turnpikes  which 
had  cost  $37,000,000. 

Many  of  these  turnpikes  were  beautiful  and 
splendid  roads ;  for  instance,  the  "  Mohawk  and 


350  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Hudson  Turnpike/'  which  ran  in  a  straight  line 
from  Albany  to  Schenectady,  was  ornamented  and 
shaded  with  two  rows  of  the  quickly  growing  and 
fashionable  poplar-trees  and  thickly  punctuated  with 
taverns.  On  one  turnpike  there  were  sixty-five 
taverns  in  sixty  miles.  The  dashing  stage-coach 
accorded  well  with  this  fine  thoroughfare. 

With  the  splendid  turnpikes  came  the  glorious 
coaching  days.  In  1827  the  Traveller's  Register 
reported  eight  hundred  stage-coaches  arriving,  and 
as  many  leaving  Boston  each  week.  The  forty-mile 
road  from  Boston  to  Providence  sometimes  saw 
twenty  coaches  going  each  way.  The  editor  of 
the  Providence  Gazette  wrote :  "  We  were  rattled 
from  Boston  to  Providence  in  four  hours  and  fifty 
minutes  —  if  any  one  wants  to  go  faster  he  may  go 
to  Kentucky  and  charter  a  streak  of  lightning." 
There  were  four  rival  lines  on  the  Cumberland 
road,  —  the  National,  Good  Intent,  Pioneer,  and 
June  Bug.  Some  spirited  races  the  old  stage-road 
witnessed  between  the  rival  lines.  The  distance 
from  Wheeling  to  Cumberland,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two  miles,  was  regularly  accomplished  in 
twenty-four  hours.  No  heavy  luggage  was  carried 
and  but  nine  passengers ;  fourteen  coaches  rolled 
off  together  —  one  was  a  mail-coach  with  a  horn. 
Relays  were  every  ten  miles  ;  teams  were  changed 


/J 


?0 


Respectfully  jxpohm  T1IK  I'ntuc, 

t  they  have  pat  in  complete  u/uifr  that  well knowr, 
Tavekx,  Furmerly  kept  by  WJIwexvokt, 

SIGXOF 


Sffltte  St r^ef , 


fit  re ut '  Hunt  njth  fhti?  cmfvtn 


Wolfe  Tavern,  Newburyport,  Massachusetts 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  351 

before  the  coach  ceased  rocking ;  one  driver  boasted 
of  changing  and  harnessing  his  four  horses  in  four 
minutes.  Lady  travellers  were  quickly  thrust  in  the 
open  door  and  their  bandboxes  after  them.  Scant 
time  was  there  for  refreshment,  save  by  uncorking 
of  bottles.  The  keen  test  and  acute  rivalry  between 
drivers  came  in  the  delivery  of  the  President's  Mes- 
sage. Dan  Gordon  carried  the  message  thirty-two 
miles  in  two  hours  and  thirty  minutes,  changing 
horses  three  times.  Bill  Noble  carried  the  message 
from  Wheeling  to  Hagerstown,  a  hundred  and 
eighty-five  miles,  in  fifteen  and  a  half  hours. 

In  1 81 8  the  Eastern  Stage  Company  was  char- 
tered in  the  state  of  New  Hampshire.  The  route 
was  this  :  a  stage  started  from  Portsmouth  at  9  a.m.  ; 
passengers  dined  at  Topsfield  ;  thence  through  Dan- 
vers  and  Salem  ;  back  the  following  day,  dining  at 
Newburyport.  The  capital  stock  was  four  hundred 
and  twenty-five  shares  at  a  hundred  dollars  par.  In 
1834  the  stock  was  worth  two  hundred  dollars  a 
share.  The  company  owned  several  hundred 
horses.  It  was  on  a  coach  of  this  line  that  Henry 
Clay  rode  from  Pleasant  Street,  Salem,  to  Tremont 
House,  Boston,  in  exactly  an  hour;  and  on  the  route 
extended  to  Portland,  Daniel  Webster  was  carried 
at  the  rate  of  sixteen  English  miles  an  hour  from 
Boston  to  Portland  to  sign  the  Ashburton  Treaty. 


35 2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  middle  of  the  century  saw  the  beginning  of 
the  end  of  coaching  in  all  the  states  that  had  been 
colonies.  Further  west  the  old  stage-coach  had  to 
trundle  in  order  to  exist  at  all  :  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Missouri,  across  the  plains,  and  then  over  the 
Rocky  Mountains  to  Salt  Lake.     The  road  from 


Old-time  Rocky  Mountain  Mail-coach 


Carson  to  Plainville  gave  the  crack  ride,  and  the 
driver  wore  yellow  kid  gloves.  The  coach  known 
as  the  Concord  wagon,  drawn  by  six  horses,  still 
makes  cheerful  the  out-of-the-way  roads  of  our 
Western  states,  and  recalls  the  life  of  olden  times. 
The  story  of  spirited  and  gay  life  still  exists  in  the 
Wells  Fargo  Express.    The  usefulness  of  the  Con- 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  353 

cord  coach  is  not  limited  to  the  western  nor  the 
northern  portion  of  our  continent ;  in  South  America 
it  flourishes,  banishing  all  rivals. 

Canal  travel  and  transportation  were  proposed  at 
the  close  of  provincial  days,  and  a  few  short  canals 
were  built.  Benjamin  Franklin  was  early  awake  to 
their  practicability  and  value.  Among  the  stock- 
owners  of  the  Dismal  Swamp  Canal  was  George 
Washington,  and  he  was  equally  interested  in  the 
Potomac  Canal. 

The  Erie  Canal,  first  proposed  to  the  New  York 
legislature  in  1768,  was  completed  in  1825.  There 
was  considerable  passenger  travel  on  this  canal  at 
"  a  cent  and  a  half  a  mile,  a  mile  and  a  half  an  hour/' 
Horace  Greeley  has  given  an  excellent  picture  of 
this  leisurely  travel ;  it  was  asserted  by  some  that 
stage-coaches  were  doomed  by  the  canal-boat,  but 
they  continued  to  exist  till  they  encountered  a 
more  formidable  rival. 

Until  turnpike  days  all  small  carriages  were  two- 
wheeled  ;  chaises,  chairs,  and  sulkies  were  those 
generally  used.  The  chaise  and  harness  used  by 
Jonathan  Trumbull  —  "Brother  Jonathan"  —  are 
here  shown.  With  regard  to  private  conveyances, 
whether  coaches,  chaises,  or  chairs,  the  colonies  kept 
close  step  from  earliest  days  with  the  mother- 
countries.    Randolph  noted  with  envy  the  Boston 

2  A 


354  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


coaches  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Parson 
Thatcher  was  accused  and  reprehended  in  1675 
for  making  visits  with  a  coach  and  four.  Coaches 
were  taxed  both  in  England  and  America  ;  so  we 
know  exactly  how  plentiful  they  were.  There  were 
as  many  in  Massachusetts  in  1750  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  inhabitants  as  there  were  in  England 
in  1830.  Judge  Sewall's  diary  often  refers  to  pri- 
vate coaches  ;  and  one  of  the  most  amusing  scenes 
it  depicts  is  his  continued  and  ingenious  argument 
when  wooing  Madam  Winthrop  for  his  third  wife, 
when  she  stipulated  that  he  should  keep  a  coach, 
and  his  frugal  mind  disposed  him  not  to  do  it. 

Coach-building  prospered  in  the  colonies  ;  Lucas 
and4  Paddock  in  Boston,  Ross  in  New  York,  made 
beautiful  and  rich  coaches.     Materials  were  ample 


Campbell  Coach 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  355 


and  varied  in  the  New  World  for  carriage-building ; 
horseflesh  —  not  over-choice,  to  be  sure  —  became 
over-plentiful ;  it  was  said  that  no  man  ever  walked 
in  America  save  a  vagabond  or  a  fool.  A  coach 
made  for  Madam  Angelica  Campbell  of  Schenec- 
tady, New  York,  by.  coach-builder  Ross,  in  1790, 


Dutch  Sleigh  in  New  York.    Fro:n  an  o!d  print 


is  here  shown.  It  is  now  owned  by  Mr.  John  D. 
Campbell  of  Rotterdam,  New  York. 

Sleighs  were  common  in  New  York  a  half-cen- 
tury before  they  were  in  Boston.  Madam  Knights 
noted  the  fast  racing  in  sleighs  in  New  York  when 
she  was  there  in  1704. 


356  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


One  other  curious  conveyance  of  colonial  days 
should  be  spoken  of,  —  a  sedan-chair.  This  was  a 
strong  covered  chair  fastened  on  two  bars  with 
handles  like  a  litter,  and  might  be  carried  by  two  or 
four  persons.  When  sedan-chairs  were  so  much 
used  in  England,  they  were  sure  to  be  somewhat 
used  in  cities  in  America.  One  was  presented  to 
Governor  Winthrop  as  early  as  1646,  portion  of  a 
capture  from  a  Spanish  galleon.  Judge  Sewall 
wrote  in  1706,  "  Five  Indians  carried  Mr.  Brom- 
field  in  a  chair."  This  was  in  the  country,  down 
on  Cape  Cod,  and  doubtless  four  Indians  carried 
him  while  one  rested.  As  late  as  1789  Eliza 
Quincy  saw  Dr.  Franklin  riding  in  a  sedan-chair 
in  Philadelphia. 

The  establishment  and  building  of  roads,  bridges, 
and  opening  of  inns  show  that  mutual  interest  which 
marks  civilization,  and  separates  us  from  the  lonely, 
selfish  life  of  a  savage.  Soon  inns  were  found  every- 
where in  the  Northern  colonies.  In  New  England, 
New  York,  and  Pennsylvania  an  inn  was  called  an 
ordinary,  a  victualling,  a  cook-shop,  or  a  tavern 
before  we  had  our  modern  word  hotel. 

Board  was  not  very  high  at  early  inns  ;  the  prices 
were  regulated  by  the  different  towns.  In  1633  the 
Salem  innkeeper  could  only  have  sixpence  for  a 
meal.     This  was  at  the  famous  Anchor  Tavern, 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  357 


which  was  kept  as  a  hostelry  for  nearly  two  centuries. 
At  the  Ship  Tavern,  board,  lodging,  wine  at  dinner, 
and  beer  between  meals  cost  three  shillings  a  day. 
Great  care  was  taken  by  the  magistrates  to  choose 
responsible  men  and  women  to  keep  taverns,  and 
they  would  not  permit  too  many  taverns  in  one 
town.  At  first  the  tavern-keeper  could  not  sell 
sack  (which  was  sherry),  nor  stronger  intoxicating 
liquor  to  travellers,  but  he  could  sell  beer,  provided 
it  was  good,  for  a  penny  a  quart.  Nor  could  he 
sell  cakes  or  buns  except  at  a  wedding  or  funeral. 
He  could  not  allow  games  to  be  played,  nor  singing 
or  dancing  to  take  place. 

We  know  from  Shakespeare's  plays  that  the  dif- 
ferent rooms  in  English  inns  had  names.  This 
was  also  the  custom  in  New  England.  The  Star 
Chamber,  Rose  and  Sun  Chamber,  Blue  Chamber, 
Jerusalem  Chamber,  were  some  of  them.  Many  of 
the  taverns  of  Revolutionary  days  and  some  of  colo- 
nial times  are  still  standing.  A  few  have  even  been 
taverns  since  first  built ;  others  have  served  many 
other  uses.  A  well-preserved  old  house,  built  in 
1690  in  Sudbury,  Massachusetts,  was  originally 
known  as  the  Red  Horse  Tavern,  but  has  acquired 
greater  fame  as  the  Wayside  Inn  of  Longfellow's 
Tales.  Its  tap-room  with  raftered  ceiling  and  cage- 
like bar  with  swinging  gate  is  a  picturesque  room, 


358  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

and  is  one  of  the  few  old  tap-rooms  left  unaltered 
in  New  England. 

Every  inn  had  a  name,  usually  painted  on  its 


Swing-sign  from  Grosvenor  Inn,  Pomfret.  Connecticut 


swinging  sign-board,  with  some  significant  emblem. 
These  names  were  simply  repetitions  of  old  English 
tavern-signs  until  Revolutionary  days,  when  patriotic 
landlords  eagerly  invented  and  adopted  names  sig- 
nificant of  the  new  nation.     The  scarlet  coat  of 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  359 


King  George  became  the  blue  and  buff  of  George 
Washington ;  and  the  eagle  of  the  United  States 
took  the  place  of  the  British  lion. 

The  sign-board  was  an  interesting  survival  of 
feudal  times,  and  with  its  old-time  carved  and  forged 
companions,  such  as  vanes  and  weathercocks,  door- 
knockers and  figureheads,  formed  a  picturesque  ele- 
ment of  decoration  and  symbolism.  Many  chapters 
might  be  written  on  historic,  commemorative,  em- 
blematic, heraldic,  biblical,  humorous,  or  significant 
signs,  nearly  all  of  which  have  vanished  from  public 
gaze,  as  has  disappeared  also  the  general  incapacity 
to  read,  which  made  pictorial  devices  a  necessity. 
Gilders,  painter-stainers,  smiths,  and  joiners  all 
helped  to  make  the  tavern-sign  a  thing  of  varied 
workmanship  if  not  of  art.  It  is  said  that  Phila- 
delphia excelled  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  her 
sign-boards.  With  fair  roads  for  colonial  days,  the 
best  and  amplest  system  of  transportation,  and  the 
splendid  Conestoga  wagons,  great  inns  multiplied 
throughout  Pennsylvania.  In  Baltimore  both  tav- 
erns and  signs  were  many  and  varied,  from  the  Three 
Loggerheads  to  the  Indian  Queen  with  its  "two 
hundred  guest-rooms  with  a  bell  in  every  room," 
and  the  Fountain  Inn  built  around  a  shady  court, 
with  galleries  on  every  story,  like  the  Tabard  Inn 
at  Southwark. 


360 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  swinging  sign-board  of  John  Nash's  Tavern 

at  Amherst,  Massachu- 
setts, is  here  reproduced 
from  the  History  of  Am- 
herst, It  is  a  good  type 
of  the  ordinary  sign-board 
which  was  found  hanging 
in  front  of  every  tavern  a 
century  ago. 

In  Virginia  and  the 
Carolinas  taverns  were  not 
so  plentiful  nor  so  neces- 
sary;  for  a  traveller  might 
ride  from  Maryland  to 
Georgia,  and  be  sure  of  a 
welcome  at  every  private 
house  on  the  way.  Some 
planters,  eager  for  com- 
pany and  news,  stationed 
negroes  at  the  gate  to  in- 
vite passers-by  on  the 
post-road  to  come  into 
the  house  and  be  entertained.  Berkeley,  in  his  His- 
tory of  Virginia^  wrote  :  — 

"The  inhabitants  are  very  courteous  to  travellers,  who 
need  no  other  recommendation  than  being  human  creat- 
ures.   A  stranger  has  no  more  to  do  but  to  inquire  upon 


Sign-board,  John  Nash's  Tavern,  Am 
herst,  Massachusetts 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns  361 

the  road  where  any  gentleman  or  good  housekeeper  lives, 
and  then  he  may  depend  upon  being  received  with  hospi- 
tality. This  good-nature  is  so  general  among  their  people, 
that  the  gentry,  when  they  go  abroad,  order  their  principal 
servants  to  entertain  all  visitors  with  everything  the  plan- 
tation affords;  and  the  poor  planters  who  have  but  one 
bed,  will  often  sit  up,  or  lie  upon  a  form  or  couch  all 
night,  to  make  room  for  a  weary  traveller  to  repose  himself 
after  his  journey." 

So  universal  was  this  custom  of  free  entertain- 
ment that  it  was  a  law  in  Virginia  that  unless  there 
had  been  a  distinct  agreement  to  pay  for  board  and 
shelter,  no  pay  could  be  claimed  from  any  guest,  no 
matter  how  long  he  remained.  In  the  few  taverns 
that  existed  prices  were  low,  about  a  shilling  a 
dinner ;  and  it  was  ordered  that  the  meal  must  be 
wholesome  and  good. 

The  governor  of  New  Netherlands  at  first  enter- 
tained all  visitors  to  New  Amsterdam  at  his  house 
in  the  fort.  But  as  commerce  increased  he  found 
this  hospitality  burdensome,  and  a  Harberg  or 
tavern  was  built ;  it  was  later  used  as  a  city  hall. 

In  England  throughout  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  indeed  much  later,  traversing  the  great  cities 
by  night  was  a  matter  of  some  danger.  The  streets 
were  ill-lighted,  were  full  of  holes  and  mud  and 
filth,  and  were  infested  with  thieves.    Worse  still. 


362  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


groups  of  drunken  and  dissipated  young  men  of 
wealth,  calling  themselves  Mohocks,  Scourers,  and 
other  names,  roamed  the  dark  streets  armed  with 
swords  and  bludgeons,  assaulting,  tormenting,  and 
injuring  every  one  whom  they  met,  who  had  the 
ill  fortune  to  be  abroad  at  night. 

There  was  nothing  of  that  sort  known  in  Ameri- 
can cities ;  there  was  little  noise  or  roistering,  no 
highway  robbery,  comparatively  little  petty  stealing. 
The  streets  were  ill-paved  and  dirty,  but  not  foul 
with  the  accumulated  dirt  of  centuries  as  in  London. 
The  streets  in  nearly  all  cities  were  unlighted. 
In  1697  New  Yorkers  were  ordered  to  have  a 
lantern  and  candle  hung  out  on  a  pole  from  every 
seventh  house.  And  as  the  watchman  walked 
around  he  called  out,  "  Lanthorn,  and  a  whole  can- 
dell-light.  Hang  out  your  lights."  The  watch- 
man was  called  a  rattle-watch,  and  carried  a  long 
staff  and  a  lantern  and  a  large  rattle  or  klopper, 
which  he  struck  to  frighten  away  thieves.  And  all 
night  long  he  called  out  each  hour,  and  told  the 
weather.  For  instance,  he  called  out,  "  Past  mid- 
night, and  all's  well " ;  "  One  o'clock  and  fair 
winds,"  or  "  Five  o'clock  and  cloudy  skies."  Thus 
one  could  lie  safe  in  bed  and  if  he  chanced  to 
waken  could  know  that  the  friendly  rattle-watch 
was  near  at  hand,  and  what  was  the  weather  and 


Travel,  Transportation,  and  Taverns 


the  time  of  night.  In  1658  New  York  had  in  all 
ten  watchmen,  who  were  like  our  modern  police; 
to-day  it  has  many  thousands. 

In  New  England  the  constables  and  watch  were 
all  carefully  appointed  by  law.  They  carried  black 
staves  six  feet  long,  tipped  with  brass,  and  hence 
were  called  tipstaves.  The  night  watch  was  called 
a  bell-man.  He  looked  out  for  fire  and  thieves 
and  other  disorders,  and  called  the  time  of  the 
night,  and  the  weather.  The  pay  was  small,  often 
but  a  shilling  a  night,  and  occasionally  a  cc  coat  of 
kersey."  In  large  towns,  as  Boston  and  Salem, 
thirteen  "  sober,  honest  men  and  householders  " 
were  the  night  watch.  The  highest  in  the  com- 
munity, even  the  magistrates,  took  their  turn  at  the 
watch,  and  were  ordered  to  walk  two  together,  a 
young  man  with  "  one  of  the  soberer  sort." 


CHAPTER  XV 


SUNDAY   IN   THE  COLONIES 

THE  first  building  used  as  a  church  at  the 
Plymouth  colony  was  the  fort,  and  to  it  the 
Pilgrim  fathers  and  mothers  and  children 
walked  on  Sunday  reverently  and  gravely,  three  in 
a  row,  the  men  fully  armed  with  swords  and  guns, 
till  they  built  a  meeting-house  in  1648.  In  other 
New  England  settlements,  the  first  services  were 
held  in  tents,  under  trees,  or  under  any  shelter. 
The  settler  who  had  a  roomy  house  often  had  also 
the  meeting.  The  first  Boston  meeting-house  had 
mud  walls,  a  thatched  roof,  and  earthen  floor.  It 
was  used  till  1640,  and  some  very  thrilling  and  in- 
spiring scenes  were  enacted  within  its  humble  walls. 
Usually  the  earliest  meeting-houses  were  log  houses, 
with  clay-filled  chinks,  and  roofs  thatched  with  reeds 
and  long  grass,  like  the  dwelling-houses.  At  Salem 
is  still  preserved  one  of  the  early  churches.  The 
second  and  more  dignified  form  of  New  England 
meeting-house  was  usually  a  square  wooden  build- 

364 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


365 


ing  with  a  truncated  pyramidal  roof,  surmounted 
often  with  a  belfry,  which  served  as  a  lookout  station 
and  held  a  bell,  from  which  the  bell-rope  hung 
down  to  the  floor  in  the  centre  of  the  church  aisle. 
The  old  church  at  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  still 


The  "Old  Ship,"  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  1680 


standing  and  still  used,  is  a  good  specimen  of  this 
shape.  It  was  built  in  1681,  and  is  known  as  the 
"  Old  Ship,"  and  is  a  comely  and  dignified  build- 
ing. As  more  elegant  and  costly  dwelling-houses 
were  built,  so  were  better  meeting-houses  ;  and  the 
third  form  with  lofty  wooden  steeple  at  one  end,  in 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


367 


meeting-house  and  nailed  it  to  the  outer  wall ;  the 
fierce  grinning  heads  and  splashes  of  blood  made  a 
grim  and  horrible  decoration.  All  kinds  of  notices 
were  also  nailed  to  the  meeting-house  door  where 
all  of  the  congregation  might  readily  see  them,  — 
notices  of  town-meetings,  of  sales  of  cattle  or  farms, 
lists  of  town-officers,  prohibitions  from  selling  guns 
to  the  Indians,  notices  of  intended  marriages,  ven- 
dues, etc.  It  was  the  only  meeting-place,  the  only 
method  of  advertisement.  In  front  of  the  church 
was  usually  a  row  of  stepping-stones  or  horse- 
blocks, for  nearly  all  came  on  horseback  ;  and  often 
on  the  meeting-house  green  stood  the  stocks,  pil- 
lory, and  whipping-post. 

A  verse  from  an  old-fashioned  hymn  reads  thus: 

"  New  England's  Sabbath  day 

Is  heaven-like,  still,  and  pure, 
When  Israel  walks  the  way 

Up  to  the  temple's  door. 
The  time  we  tell 

When  there  to  come, 

By  beat  of  drum, 
Or  sounding  shell." 

The  first  church  at  Jamestown,  Virginia,  gathered 
the  congregation  by  beat  of  drum ;  but  while 
attendants  of  the  Episcopal,  Roman  Catholic,  and 


368  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Dutch  Reformed  churches  in  the  New  World  were 
in  general  being  summoned  to  divine  service  by  the 
ringing  of  a  bell  hung  either  over  the  church  or  in 
the  branches  of  a  tree  by  its  side,  New  England 
Puritans  were  summoned,  as  the  hymn  relates,  by 
drum,  or  horn,  or  shell.  The  shell  was  a  great 
conch-shell,  and  a  man  was  hired  to  blow  it  —  a 
mournful  sound  —  at  the  proper  time,  which  was 
usually  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning.  In  Stock- 
bridge,  Massachusetts,  the  church-shell  was  after- 
wards used  for  many  years  as  a  signal  to  begin  and 
stop  work  in  the  haying  field.  In  Windsor,  Con- 
necticut, a  man  walked  up  and  down  on  a  platform 
on  the  top  of  the  meeting-house  and  blew  a  trum- 
pet to  summon  worshippers.  Many  churches  had 
a  church  drummer,  who  stood  on  the  roof  or  in  the 
belfry  and  drummed ;  a  few  raised  a  flag  as  a  sum- 
mons, or  fired  a  gun. 

Within  the  meeting-house  all  was  simple  enough  : 
raftered  walls,  puncheon  and  sanded  or  earthen 
floors,  rows  of  benches,  a  few  pews,  all  of  unpainted 
wood,  and  a  pulpit  which  was  usually  a  high  desk 
overhung  by  a  heavy  sounding-board,  which  was 
fastened  to  the  roof  by  a  slender  metal  rod.  The 
pulpit  was  sometimes  called  a  scaffold.  When  pews 
were  built  they  were  square,  with  high  partition 
walls,  and  had  narrow,  uncomfortable  seats  round 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


369 


three  sides.  The  word  was  always  spelled  "  pue  "  ; 
and  they  were  sometimes  called  "  pits."  A  little 
girl  in  the  middle  of  this  century  attended  a  service 
in  an  old  church  which  still  retained  the  old-fash- 
ioned square  pews  ;  she  exclaimed,  in  a  loud  voice, 
"  What !  must  I  be  shut  in  a  closet  and  sit  on  a 
shelf?  "  These  narrow,  shelf-like  seats  were  usually 
'  hung  on  hinges  and  could  be  turned  up  against  the 
pew-walls  during  the  long  psalm-tunes  and  prayers  ; 
so  the  members  of  the  congregation  could  lean 
against  the  pew-walls  for  support  as  they  stood. 
When  the  seats  were  let  down,  they  fell  with  a 
heavy  slam  that  could  be  heard  half  a  mile  away 
in  the  summer  time,  when  the  windows  of  the 
meeting-house  were  open.  Lines  from  an  old 
poem  read:  — 

"  And  when  at  last  the  loud  Amen 
Fell  from  aloft,  how  quickly  then 
The  seats  came  down  with  heavy  rattle, 
Like  musketry  in  fiercest  battle." 

A  few  of  the  old-time  meeting-houses,  with  high 
pulpit,  square  pews,  and  deacons'  seats,  still  re- 
main in  New  England.  The  interior  of  the  Rocky 
Hill  meeting-house  at  Salisbury,  Massachusetts,  is 
here  shown.  It  fully  illustrates  the  words  of  the 
poet :  — 

2  B 


2JO  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


w  Old  house  of  Puritanic  wood 

Through  whose  unpainted  windows  streamed 
On  seats  as  primitive  and  rude 

As  Jacob's  pillow  when  he  dreamed, 
The  white  and  undiluted  day — " 


The  seats  were  carefully  and  thoughtfully  assigned 
by  a  church  committee  called  the  Seating  Com- 


Rocky  Hill  Meeting-house,  Salisbury,  Massachusetts,  1785 


mittee,  the  best  seats  being  given  to  older  persons 
of  wealth  and  dignity  who  attended  the  church. 
Whittier  wrote  of  this  custom  :  — 

"  In  the  goodly  house  of  worship,  where  in  order  due  and  fit, 
As  by  public  vote  directed,  classed  and  ranked  the  people 
sit. 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies  371 

Mistress  first  and  good  wife  after,  clerkly  squire  before 
the  clown, 

From  the  brave  coat  lace-embroidered  to  the  gray  coat 
shading  down." 


Plan  for  Seating  the  Meeting-house 


Many  of  the  plans  for  "  seating  the  meeting- 
house "  have  been  preserved ;  the  pews  and  their 
assigned  occupants  are  clearly  designated.  A  copy 
is  shown  of  one  now  in  Deerfield  Memorial  Hall. 

In  the  early  meeting-houses  men  and  women  sat 
on  separate  sides  of  the  meeting-house,  as  in  Quaker 
meetings  till  our  own  time.    Sometimes  a  group  of 


372  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


young  women  or  of  young  men  were  permitted  to 
sit  in  the  gallery  together.  Little  girls  sat  beside 
their  mothers  or  on  footstools  at  their  feet,  or  some- 
times on  the  gallery  stairs  ;  and  I  have  heard  of  a 
little  cage  or  frame  to  hold  Puritan  babies  in  meet- 
ing. Boys  did  not  sit  with  their  families,  but  were 
in  groups  by  themselves,  usually  on  the  pulpit  and 
gallery  stairs,  where  tithing-men  watched  over  them. 
In  Salem,  in  1676,  it  was  ordered  by  the  town  that 
"  all  ye  boyes  of  ye  towne  are  appointed  to  sitt 
upon  ye  three  paire  of  stairs  in  ye  meeting-house, 
and  Wm.  Lord  is  appointed  to  look  after  ye  boys 
upon  ye  pulpitt  stairs." 

In  Stratford  the  tithing-man  was  ordered  to 
"  watch  over  youths  of  disorderly  carriage,  and  see 
they  behave  themselves  comelie,  and  use  such  raps 
and  blows  as  is  in  his  discretion  meet/1  In  Durham 
any  misbehaving  boy  was  punished  publicly  after 
the  service  was  over.  We  would  nowadays  scarcely 
seat  twenty  or  thirty  active  boys  together  in  church 
if  we  wished  them  to  be  models  of  attention  and 
dignified  behavior  ;  but  after  the  boys'  seats  were 
removed  from  the  pulpit  stairs  they  were  all  turned 
in  together  in  a  "boys'  pew"  in  the  gallery.  There 
was  a  boys'  pew  in  Windsor,  Connecticut,  as  late  as 
1845,  and  pretty  noisy  it  usually  was.  A  certain 
small  boy  in  Connecticut  misbehaved  himself  on 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies  373 

Sunday,  and  his  wickedness  was  specified  by  the 
justice  of  peace  as  follows  :  — 

"  A  Rude  and  Idel  Behaver  in  the  meeting  hous.  Such 
as  Smiling  and  Larfing  and  Intiseing  others  to  the  Same 
Evil.  Such  as  Larfing  or  Smiling  or  puling  the  hair  of  his 
nayber  Benoni  Simkins  in  the  time  of  Publick  Worship. 
Such  as  throwing  Sister  Penticost  Perkins  on  the  Ice,  it 
being  Saboth  day,  between  the  meeting  hous  and  his  plaes 
of  abode." 

I  can  picture  well  the  wicked  scene ;  poor,  meek 
little  Benoni  Simpkins  trying  to  behave  well  in 
meeting,  and  not  cry  out  when  the  young  "  wanton 
gospeller  "  pulled  her  hair,  and  unfortunate  Sister 
Perkins  tripped  up  on  the  ice  by  the  young  rascal. 

Another  vain  youth  in  Andover,  Massachusetts, 
was  brought  up  before  the  magistrate,  and  it  was 
charged  that  he  "sported  and  played,  and  by  In- 
decent gestures  and  wry  faces  caused  laughter  and 
misbehavior  in  the  beholders."  The  girls  were  just 
as  wicked ;  they  slammed  down  the  pew-seats. 
Tabatha  Morgus  of  Norwich  "prophaned  the  Lord's 
daye "  by  her  "  rude  and  indecent  behavior  in 
Laughing  and  playing  in  ye  tyme  of  service."  On 
Long  Island  godless  boys  "  ran  raesses  "  on  the 
Sabbath  and  "  talked  of  vane  things,"  and  as  for 
Albany  children,  they  played  hookey  and  coasted 
down  hill  on  Sunday  to  the  scandal  of  every  one 


374  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


evidently,  except  their  parents.  When  the  boys 
were  separated  and  families  sat  in  pews  together,  all 
became  orderly  in  meeting. 

The  deacons  sat  in  a  "  Deacons'  Pue  "  just  in  front 
of  the  pulpit ;  sometimes  also  there  was  a  "  Deaf 
Pue  "  in  front  for  those  who  were  hard  of  hearing. 
After  choirs  were  established  the  singers'  seats  were 
usually  in  the  gallery;  and  high  up  under  the  beams 
in  a  loft  sat  the  negroes  and  Indians. 

If  any  person  seated  himself  in  any  place  which 
was  not  assigned  to  him,  he  had  to  pay  a  line,  usu- 
ally of  several  shillings,  for  each  offence.  But  in 
old  Newbury  men  were  fined  as  high  as  twenty- 
seven  pounds  each  for  persistent  and  unruly  sitting 
in  seats  belonging  to  other  members. 

The  churches  were  all  unheated.  Few  had  stoves 
until  the  middle  of  this  century.  The  chill  of  the 
damp  buildings,  never  heated  from  autumn  to 
spring,  and  closed  and  dark  throughout  the  week, 
was  hard  for  every  one  to  bear.  In  some  of  the 
early  log-built  meeting-houses,  fur  bags  made  of 
wolfskins  were  nailed  to  the  seats  ;  and  in  winter 
church  attendants  thrust  their  feet  into  them.  Dogs, 
too,  were  permitted  to  enter  the  meeting-house  and 
lie  on  their  masters'  feet.  Dog-whippers  or  dog- 
pelters  were  appointed  to  control  and  expel  them 
when  they  became  unruly  or  unbearable.  Women 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


375 


and  children  usually  carried  foot-stoves,  which  were 
little  pierced  metal  boxes  that  stood  on  wooden 
legs,  and  held  hot  coals.  During  the  noon  inter- 
mission the  half-frozen  church  attendants  went  to 
a  neighboring  house  or  tavern,  or  to  a  noon-house 


Foot-stove 


to  get  warm.  A  noon-house  or  "Sabba-day  house," 
as  it  was  often  called,  was  a  long  low  building  built 
near  the  meeting-house,  with  horse-stalls  at  one  end 
and  a  chimney  at  the  other.  In  it  the  farmers  kept, 
says  one  church  record,  "  their  duds  and  horses/' 
A  great  fire  of  logs  was  built  there  each  Sunday, 
and  before  its  cheerful  blaze  noonday  luncheons  of 


376 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


brown  bread,  doughnuts,  or  gingerbread  were  eaten, 
and  foot-stoves  were  filled.  Boys  and  girls  were 
not  permitted  to  indulge  in  idle  talk  in  those  noon- 
houses,  much  less  to  play.  Often  two  or  three 
families  built  a  noon-house  together,  or  the  church 
built  a  "  Society-house/'  and  there  the  children  had 
a  sermon  read  to  them  by  a  deacon  during  the 
"  nooning"  ;  sometimes  the  children  had  to  explain 
aloud  the  notes  they  had  taken  during  the  sermon 
in  the  morning.  Thus  they  throve,  as  a  minister 
wrote,  on  the  "  Good  Fare  of  brown  Bread  and  the 
Gospel."  There  was  no  nearer  approach  to  a  Sun- 
day-school until  this  century. 

The  services  were  not  shortened  because  the 
churches  were  uncomfortable.  By  the  side  of  the 
pulpit  stood  a  brass-bound  hour-glass  which  was 
turned  by  the  tithing-man  or  clerk,  but  it  did  not 
hasten  the  closing  of  the  sermon.  Sermons  two  or 
three  hours  long  were  customary,  and  prayers  from 
one  to  two  hours  in  length.  When  the  first  church 
in  Woburn  was  dedicated,  the  minister  preached  a 
sermon  nearly  five  hours  long.  A  Dutch  traveller 
recorded  a  prayer  four  hours  long  on  a  Fast  Day. 
Many  prayers  were  two  hours  long.  The  doors 
were  closed  and  watched  by  the  tithing-man,  and 
none  could  leave  even  if  tired  or  restless  unless  with 
good  excuse.    The  singing  of  the  psalms  was  tedious 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


377 


Bass-viol,  Psalm-book  and  Pitch-pipe 


and  unmusical,  just  as  it  was  in  churches  of  all 
denominations  both  in  America  and  England  at  that 
date.  Singing  was  by  ear  and  very  uncertain,  and 
the  congregation  had  no  notes,  and  many  had  no 


378  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


psalm-books,  and  hence  no  words.  So  the  psalms 
were  "  lined  "  or  "  deaconed  "  ;  that  is,  a  line  was 
read  by  the  deacbn,  and  then  sung  by  the  congrega- 
tion. Some  psalms  when  lined  and  sung  occupied 
half  an  hour,  during  which  the  congregation  stood. 
There  were  but  eight  or  nine  tunes  in  general  use, 
and  even  these  were  often  sung  incorrectly.  There 
were  no  church  organs  to  help  keep  the  singers 
together,  but  sometimes  pitch-pipes  were  used  to  set 
the  key.  Bass-viols,  clarionets,  and  flutes  were 
played  upon  at  a  later  date  in  meeting  to  help  the 
singing.  Violins  were  too  associated  with  dance 
music  to  be  thought  decorous  for  church  music. 
Still  the  New  England  churches  clung  to  and  loved 
their  poor  confused  psalm-singing  as  one  of  their 
few  delights,  and  whenever  a  Puritan,  even  in  road 
or  field,  heard  the  distant  sound  of  a  psalm-tune  he 
removed  his  hat  and  bowed  his  head  in  prayer. 

Contributions  at  first  were  not  collected  by  the 
deacons,  but  the  entire  congregation,  one  after 
another,  walked  up  to  the  deacons'  seat  and  placed 
gifts  of  money,  goods,  wampum,  or  promissory 
notes  in  a  box.  When  the  services  were  ended,  all 
remained  in  the  pews  until  the  minister  and  his 
wife  had  walked  up  the  aisle  and  out  of  the  church. 

The  strict  observance  of  Sunday  as  a  holy  day 
was  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Puritans.  Any 


Pages  of  Old  Psalm-book  printed  in  Boston  in  1690 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies  379 


profanation  of  the  day  was  severely  punished  by 
fine  or  whipping.  Citizens  were  forbidden  to  fish, 
shoot,  sail,  row,  dance,  jump,  or  ride,  save  to  and  from 
church,  or  to  perform  any  work  on  the  farm.  An 
infinite  number  of  examples  might  be  given  to  show 
how  rigidly  the  laws  were  enforced.  The  use  of 
tobacco  was  forbidden  near  the  meeting-house. 
These  laws  were  held  to  extend  from  sunset  on 
Saturday  to  sunset  on  Sunday  ;  for  in  the  first  in- 
structions given  to  Governor  Endicott  by  the  com- 
pany in  England,  it  was  ordered  that  all  in  the 
colony  cease  work  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
on  Saturday.  The  Puritans  found  support  of  this 
belief  in  the  Scriptural  words,  "  The  evening  and 
the  morning  were  the  first  day." 

A  Sabbath  day  in  the  family  of  Rev.  John  Cotton 
was  thus  described  by  one  of  his  fellow-ministers  :  — 

"  He  began  the  Sabbath  at  evening,  therefore  then  per- 
formed family  duty  after  supper,  being  longer  than  ordinary 
in  exposition.  After  which  he  catechized  his  children  and 
servants,  and  then  returned  to  his  study.  The  morning 
following,  family  worship  being  ended,  he  retired  into  his 
study  until  the  bell  called  him  away.  Upon  his  return  from 
meeting  (where  he  had  preached  and  prayed  some  hours), 
he  returned  again  into  his  study  (the  place  of  his  labor  and 
prayer),  unto  his  favorite  devotion  ;  where  having  a  small 
repast  carried  him  up  for  his  dinner,  he  continued  until  the 


380  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


tolling  of  the  bell.  The  public  service  of  the  afternoon 
being  over,  he  withdrew  for  a  space  to  his  pre-mentioned 
oratory  for  his  sacred  addresses  to  God,  as  in  the  forenoon, 
then  came  down,  repeated  the  sermon  in  the  family,  prayed, 
after  supper  sang  a  Psalm,  and  toward  bedtime  betaking 
himself  again  to  his  study  he  closed  the  day  with  prayer. 
Thus  he  spent  the  Sabbath  continually." 

The  Virginia  Cavaliers  were  strict  Church  of 
England  men  and  the  first  who  came  to  the  colony 
were  strict  Sunday-keepers.  Rules  were  laid  down 
to  enforce  Sunday  observance.  Journeys  were  for- 
bidden, boat-lading  was  prohibited,  also  all  prof- 
anation of  the  day  by  sports,  such  as  shooting, 
fishing,  game-playing,  etc.  The  offender  who  broke 
the  Sabbath  laws  had  to  pay  a  fine  and  be  set  in  the 
stocks.  When  that  sturdy  watch-dog  of  religion 
and  government — Sir  Thomas  Dale  —  came  over, 
he  declared  absence  from  church  should  be  punish- 
able by  death ;  but  this  severity  never  was  executed. 
The  captain  of  the  watch  was  made  to  play  the 
same  part  as  the  New  England  tithing-man.  Every 
Sunday,  half  an  hour  before  service-time,  at  the  last 
tolling  of  the  bell,  the  captain  stationed  sentinels, 
then  searched  all  the  houses  and  commanded  and 
forced  all  (except  the  sick)  to  go  to  church.  Then, 
when  all  were  driven  churchwards  before  him,  he 
went  with  his  guards  to  church  himself. 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


38i 


Captain  John  Smith,  in  his  Pathway  to  erect  a 
Plantation^  thus  vividly  described  the  first  places  of 
divine  worship  in  Virginia:  — 

"  Wee  did  hang  an  awning,  which  is  an  old  saile,  to 
three  or  foure  trees  to  shadow  us  from  the  Sunne ;  our 
walls  were  railes  of  wood  ;  our  seats  unhewed  trees  till  we 
cut  plankes ;  our  Pulpit  a  bar  of  wood  nailed  to  two 
neighbouring  trees.  In  foul  weather  we  shifted  into  an 
old  rotten  tent ;  this  came  by  way  of  adventure  for  new. 
This  was  our  Church  till  we  built  a  homely  thing  like  a 
barne  set  upon  Cratchets,  covered  with  rafts,  sedge,  and 
earth ;  so  also  was  the  walls ;  the  best  of  our  houses  were 
of  like  curiosity,  that  could  neither  well  defend  from  wind 
nor  rain. 

"  Yet  we  had  daily  Common  Prayer  morning  and  evening ; 


Bruton  Parish  Church,  Williamsburgh,  Virginia 


382  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


every  Sunday  two  sermons ;  and  every  three  months  a  holy 
Communion  till  our  Minister  died :  but  our  Prayers  daily 
with  an  Homily  on  Sundays  we  continued  two  or  three 
years  after,  till  more  Preachers  came." 

A  timber  church  sixty  feet  long  took  the  place 
of  this  mud  and  clay  chapel,  and  this  was  in  turn 
replaced  by  the  brick  one  whose  ruined  arches  are 
still  standing.  The  wooden  church  saw  the  most 
pompous  ceremony  of  the  day  when  the  governor, 
De  La  Warre,  or  Delaware  as  we  now  call  it,  in  full 
dress,  attended  by  all  his  councillors  and  officers 
and  fifty  halbert-bearers  in  scarlet  cloaks,  filed  within 
its  flower-decked  walls. 

This  decoration  of  flowers  was  significant  of  the 
difference  between  the  church  edifices  of  the  Puri- 
tans and  of  the  Cavaliers.  The  churches  of  the 
Southern  colonies  were,  as  a  rule,  much  more  richly 
furnished.  Many  were  modelled  in  shape  after  the 
old  English  churches  and  were  built  of  stone,  though 
Jonathan  Boucher,  the  colonial  clergyman,  could 
write  that  the  greater  number  of  the  Southern 
churches  were,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
"composed  of  wood,  without  spires,  or  towers  or 
steeples  or  bells,  placed  in  retired  and  solitary  spots 
and  contiguous  to  springs  or  wells.,,  Many  of  the 
churches  and  the  chapels-of-ease  stood  by  the  water- 
side, and  to  the  services  came  the  church  attendants 


1 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies  383 


Pohick  Church,  Mount  Vernon,  Virginia 


in  canoes,  periaugers,  dugouts,  etc.  It  made  an 
animated  scene  upon  the  water,  as  the  boats  came 
rowing  in  and  as  they  departed  after  the  service. 

Sometimes  the  seats  were  comfortably  cushioned, 
and  they  were  carefully  assigned  as  in  the  Puritan 
meetings.  In  some  Virginia  churches  seats  in  the 
galleries  were  deemed  the  most  dignified.  There 
was  a  pew  for  the  magistrates,  another  for  the 
magistrates'  ladies  ;  pews  for  the  representatives  and 
church-wardens,  vestrymen,  etc.  Persons  crowded 
into  pews  above  their  stations,  just  as  in  New  Eng- 


384  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


land,  and  were  promptly  displaced.  Groups  of 
men  built  pews  together,  and  there  were  school- 
boys' galleries  and  pews. 

The  first  clergyman  in  Virginia,  Robert  Hunt, 
a  true  man  of  God,  came  as  a  missionary,  and  he 
and  others  were  men  of  marked  intellect  and  reli- 
gion, but  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  pay  was  too 
small  and  uncertain  to  attract  any  great  men  from 
the  Church  of  England,  and  church  attendance 
dwindled  and  became  irregular.  For  in  Virginia 
the  parish  was  expected  to  receive  any  clergyman 
sent  them  from  England,  a  rule  which  often  proved 
unsatisfactory;  and  deservedly  so,  since  some  very 
disreputable  offshoots  of  English  families  were 
thrust  upon  the  Virginia  churches.  In  the  Caro- 
linas,  where  the  church  chose  its  own  clergyman, 
harmony  and  affection  prevailed  in  the  parishes  as 
it  did  among  the  New  England  Puritans.  Though 
the  Virginians  did  not  always  love  their  clergy- 
men, still  they  were  ever  steadfast  in  their  affec- 
tion to  their  church,  and  regarded  it  as  the  only 
church. 

Sunday  was  not  observed  with  as  much  rigidity 
in  New  Netherland  as  in  New  England,  but  strict 
rules  and  laws  were  made  for  enforcing  quiet  dur- 
ing service-time.  Fishing,  gathering  berries  or  nuts, 
playing  in  the  streets,  working,  going  on  pleasure 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


385 


trips,  all  were  forbidden.  On  Long  Island  shooting 
of  wild  fowl,  carting  of  grain,  travelling  for  pleasure, 
all  were  punished.  In  Revolutionary  times  a  cage 
was  set  up  in  City  Hall  Park,  near  the  present  New 
York  Post-office,  in  which  boys  were  confined  who 
did  not  properly  regard  the  Sabbath. 

Before  the  Dutch  settlers  had  any  churches  or 
domines,  as  they  called  their  ministers,  they  had 
krankbesoeckers,  or  visitors  of  the  sick,  who  read  ser- 
mons to  an  assembled  congregation  every  Sunday. 
The  first  church  at  Albany  was  much  like  the 
Plymouth  fort,  simply  a  blockhouse  with  loopholes 
through  which  guns  could  be  fired.  The  roof  was 
mounted  with  three  cannon.  It  had  a  seat  for  the 
magistrates  and  one  for  the  deacons,  and  a  handsome 
octagonal  pulpit  which  had  been  sent  from  Holland, 
and  which  still  exists.  The  edifice  had  a  chandelier 
and  candle  sconces  and  two  low  galleries.  The  first 
church  in  New  Amsterdam  was  of  stone,  and  was 
seventy-two  feet  long. 

A  favorite  form  of  the  Dutch  churches  was  six  or 
eight  sided,  with  a  high  pyramidal  roof,  topped  with 
a  belfry  and  a  weather-vane.  Usually  the  windows 
were  so  small  and  of  glass  so  opaque  that  the  church 
was  very  dark.  A  few  of  the  churches  were  poorly 
heated  with  high  stoves  perched  up  on  pillars,  the 
Albany  and  Schenectady  churches  among  them,  but 

1  c 


386  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


all  the  women  carried  foot-stoves,  and  some  of  the 
men  carried  muffs. 

Almost  as  important  as  the  domine  was  the 
voorleezer  or  chorister,  who  was  also  generally 
the   bell-ringer,  sexton,  grave-digger,  funeral  in- 

viter,  schoolmas- 
ter, and  some- 
times town  clerk. 
He  "  tuned  the 
psalm  "  ;  turned 
the  hour-glass ; 
gave  out  the 
psalms  on  a  hang- 
ing board  to  the 
congregation;  read 
the  Bible ;  gave 
up  notices  to  the 
domine  by  stick- 
ing the  papers  in 
the  end  of  a  cleft 
stick  and  holding 
it  up  to  the  high 
pulpit. 

The  deacons 
had  control  of  all  the  church  money.  In  the 
middle  of  the  sermon  they  collected  contributions 
by  passing  sacjes.    These  were  small  cloth  or  vel- 


Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Bushwick,  Long  Island, 
1711.     From  an  old  print 


Sunday  in  the  Colonies 


387 


vet  bags  hung  on  the  end  of  a  pole  six  or  eight 
feet  long.  A  French  traveller  told  that  the  Dutch 
deacons  passed  round  cc  the  old  square  hat  of  the 
preacher"  on  the  end  of  a  stick  for  the  contribu- 
tions. Usually  there  was  a  little  bell  on  the  sacje 
which  rung  when  a  coin  was  dropped  in. 

In  many  Dutch  churches  the  men  sat  in  a  row  of 
pews  around  the  wall  while  the  women  were  seated 
on  chairs  in  the  centre  of  the  church.  There  were 
also  a  few  benches  or  pews  for  persons  of  special 
dignity,  or  for  the  minister's  wife. 

There  were  many  other  colonists  of  other  reli- 
gious faiths  :  the  Roman  Catholics  in  Maryland  and 
the  extreme  Southern  colonies ;  the  Ouakers  in 
Pennsylvania;  the  Baptists  in  Rhode  Island;  the 
Huguenots,  Lutherans,  Moravians;  but  all  enjoined 
an  orderly  observance  of  the  Sabbath  day.  And  it 
may  be  counted  as  one  of  the  great  blessings  of  the 
settlement  of  America,  one  of  the  most  ennobling 
conditions  of  its  colonization,  that  it  was  made  at  a 
time  when  the  deepest  religious  feeling  prevailed 
throughout  Europe,  when  devotion  to  some  reli- 
gion was  found  in  every  one,  when  the  Bible  was  a 
newly  found  and  deeply  loved  treasure;  when  the 
very  differences  of  religious  belief  and  the  formation 
of  new  sects  made  each  cling  more  lovingly  and 

more  earnestly  to  his  own  faith. 

j 

9 


CHAPTER  XVI 


COLONIAL  NEIGHBORLINESS 

IF  the  first  foundation  of  New  England's 
strength  and  growth  was  godliness,  its  next 
was  neighborliness,  and  a  firm  rock  it  proved 
to  build  upon.  It  may  seem  anomalous  to  assert 
that  while  there  was  in  olden  times  infinitely  greater 
independence  in  each  household  than  at  present, 
yet  there  was  also  greater  interdependence  with  sur- 
rounding households. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  completely  social  ethics 
and  relations  have  changed  since  olden  days.  Aid 
in  our  families  in  times  of  stress  and  need  is  not 
given  to  us  now  by  kindly  neighbors  as  of  yore ; 
we  have  well-arranged  systems  by  which  we  can  buy 
all  that  assistance,  and  pay  for  it,  not  with  affection- 
ate regard,  but  with  current  coin.  The  colonist 
turned  to  any  and  all  who  lived  around  him,  and 
never  turned  in  vain  for  help  in  sickness,  or  at  the 
time  of  death  of  members  of  his  household ;  for 
friendly  advice ;  for  culinary  aids  to  a  halting  appe- 
tite ;  for  the  preparation  for  feasting  an  exceptional 

388 


Colonial  Neigh borliness 


389 


number  of  persons  ;  in  short,  in  any  unusual  emer- 
gency, as  well  as  in  frequent  every-day  cooperation 
in  log-rolling,  stone-piling,  stump-pulling,  wall- 
building,  house-raising,  etc.,  —  all  the  hard  and 
exhausting  labor  on  the  farm. 

The  word  "  cooperation  "  is  modern,  but  the  thing 
itself  is  as  old  as  civilization.  In  a  new  country 
where  there  was  much  work  to  be  done  which  one 
man  or  one  family  could  not  do,  under  the  me- 
chanical conditions  which  then  existed,  a  working 
together,  or  union  of  labor  was  necessary  for  prog- 
ress, indeed,  almost  for  obtaining  a  foothold. 

The  term  "log-rolling"  is  frequently  employed  in 
its  metaphorical  sense  in  politics,  both  by  English 
and  American  writers  who  have  vague  knowledge 
of  the  original  meaning  of  the  word.  A  log-rolling 
in  early  pioneer  days,  in  the  Northern  colonies  and  in 
western  Virginia  and  the  central  states,  was  a  noble 
example  of  generous  cooperation,  where  each  gave 
of  his  best  —  his  time,  strength,  and  good  will;  and 
where  all  worked  to  clear  the  ground  in  the  forest 
for  a  home-farm  for  a  neighbor  who  might  be  newly 
come  and  an  entire  stranger,  but  who  in  turn  would 
just  as  cheerfully  and  energetically  give  his  work  for 
others  when  it  was  needed. 

With  the  vanishing  of  the  log-rolling,  and  a  score 
of  similar  kindly  usages  and  customs,  has  gone  from 


390  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

our  communities  all  traces  of  the  old-time  exalted 
type  of  neighborliness.  We  nowadays  have  gen- 
eralized our  sentiments ,  we  have  more  philanthropy 
and  less  neighborliness ;  we  have  more  love  for 
mankind  and  less  for  men.  We  are  independent 
of  our  neighbors,  but  infinitely  more  dependent  on 
the  world  at  large.  The  personal  element  has  been 
removed  to  a  large  extent  from  our  social  ethics. 
We  buy  nursing  and  catering  just  as  we  hire  our 
houses  built  and  buy  our  corn  ready  ground. 
Doubtless  everything  we  buy  is  infinitely  better ; 
nevertheless,  our  loss  in  affectionate  zeal  is  great. 

The  plantation  was  the  unit  in  Virginia;  in  New 
England  it  was  the  town.  The  neighborly  helpful- 
ness of  the  New  England  settlers  extended  from 
small  to  great  matters  ;  it  formed  communal  privi- 
leges and  entered  into  every  department  of  town 
life.  For  instance,  the  town  of  Gloucester  in  1663 
granted  a  right  to  a  citizen  for  running  a  small  saw7- 
mill  for  twenty-one  years.  In  return  for  this  right 
the  grantee  was  to  sell  boards  to  Gloucester  men  at 
"  one  shilling  per  hundred  better  cheape  than  to 
strangers  "  — -  and  was  to  receive  pay  "  raised  in  the 
towne."  Saco  and  Biddeford,  in  Maine,  ordered  that 
fellow-townsmen  should  have  preference  in  every 
employment.  Other  towns  ordered  certain  persons 
to  buy  provisions  "of  the  towns-men  in  preference. ?' 


Colonial  Neighborliness  391 

Reading  would  not  sell  any  of  its  felled  timber  out 
of  the  town.  Thus  the  social  compact  called  a  town 
extended  itself  also  into  all  the  small  doings  of  daily 
life,  and  the  mutual  helpfulness  made  mutual  inter- 
ests that  proved  no  small  element  of  the  force  which 
bound  all  together  in  1776  in  a  successful  struggle 
for  independence. 

In  outlying  settlements  and  districts  this  feeling 
of  mutual  dependence  and  assistance  was  strong 
enough  to  give  a  name  which  sometimes  lingered 
long.  "The  Loomis  Neighborhood/'  "The  Mason 
Neighborhood/'  "The  Robinson  Neighborhood" 
were  names  distinctive  for  half  a  century,  and  far 
more  distinguishing  and  individual  than  the  Green- 
ville, Masontown,  and  Longwood  that  succeeded 
them. 

There  was  one  curious  and  contradictory  aspect 
of  this  neighborliness,  this  kindliness,  this  thought 
for  mutual  welfare,  and  that  was  its  narrowness, 
especially  in  New  England,  as  regards  the  limita- 
tions of  space  and  locality.  It  is  impossible  to  judge 
what  caused  this  restraint  of  vision,  but  it  is  certain 
that  in  generality  and  almost  in  universality,  just  as 
soon  as  any  group  of  settlers  could  call  themselves 
a  town,  these  colonists'  notions  of  kindliness  and 
thoughtfulness  for  others  became  distinctly  and 
rigidly  limited  to  their  own  townspeople.  The 


392  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


town  was  their  whole  world.  Without  doubt  this 
was  partly  the  result  of  the  lack  of  travelling  facili- 
ties and  ample  communication,  which  made  town- 
ships far  more  separated  and  remote  from  each  other 
than  states  are  to-day,  and  made  difficult  the  possi- 
bility of  speedy  or  full  knowledge  of  strangers. 
This  caused  a  constant  suspicion  of  all  new- 

J. 

comers,  especially  those  who  chanced  to  enter  with 
scant  introduction,  and  made  universal  a  custom  of 
"  warning  out "  all  strangers  who  arrived  in  any 
town.  This  formality  was  gone  through  with  by 
the  sheriff  or  tithing-man.  Thereafter  should  the 
warned  ones  prove  incapable  or  unsuccessful  or 
vicious,  they  could  not  become  a  charge  upon  the 
town,  but  could  be  returned  whence  they  came  with 
despatch  and  violence  if  necessary.  By  this  means, 
and  by  various  attempts  to  restrict  the  powers  of 
citizens  to  sell  property  to  newcomers,  the  town 
kept  a  jealous  watch  over  the  right  of  entry  into 
the  corporation. 

Dorchester  in  1634  enacted  that  "no  man  within 
the  Plantation  shall  sell  his  house  or  lott  to  any 
man  without  the  Plantation  whome  they  shall  dis- 
like off."  Providence  would  not  permit  a  proprietor 
to  sell  to  any  "  but  to  an  Inhabitant"  without  con- 
sent of  the  town.  New  Haven  would  neither  sell 
nor  let  ground  to  a  stranger.    Hadley  would  sell 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


393 


no  land  to  any  until  after  three  years'  occupation, 
and  then  only  with  approval  of  the  "Town's  Mind." 
In  1637  the  General  Court  very  reasonably  ques- 
tioned whether  towns  could  legally  restrain  in- 
dividuals from  disposal  of  their  own  property,  but 
the  custom  was  so  established,  so  in  touch  with  the 
narrow  exclusiveness  of  the  colonists,  that  it  still 
prevailed.  The  expression  of  the  town  of  Water- 
town  when  it  would  sell  lots  only  to  freemen  of  the 
congregation,  because  it  wished  no  strange  neigh- 
bors, but  only  "  to  sitt  down  there  close  togither," 
was  the  sentiment  of  all  the  towns.  One  John 
Stebbins,  who  had  twice  served  as  a  soldier  of 
Watertown  and  lived  there  seven  years,  could  not 
get  a  town  lot. 

The  legal  process  of  warning  out  of  town  had  an 
element  of  the  absurd  in  it,  and  in  one  case  that  of 
mystery,  namely  :  a  sheriff  appeared  before  the  woe- 
begone intruder,  and  said,  half  laughing,  "  I  warn 
you  off  the  face  of  the  earth."  "  Let  me  get  my 
hat  before  I  go,"  stammered  the  terrified  wanderer, 
who  ran  into  the  house  for  his  hat  and  was  never 
seen  by  any  mortal  eye  in  that  town  afterwards.  It 
has  become  a  tradition  of  local  folk-lore  that  he 
literally  vanished  from  the  earth  at  the  command 
of  the  officer  of  the  law. 

The  harboring  of  strangers,  even  of  relatives  who 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


were  not  local  residents,  was  a  frequent  source  of 
bickering  between  citizens  and  magistrates,  as  well 
as  a  constant  cause  of  arbitration  between  towns. 
A  widow  in  Dorchester  was  not  permitted  to  enter- 
tain her  own  son-in-law  from  another  town,  and  her 
neighbor  was  fined  in  1671  "under  distress  "  for 
housing  his  own  daughter.  She  was  a  married 
woman,  and  alleged  she  could  not  return  to  her 
husband  on  account  of  the  inclement  weather. 

As  time  passed  on  and  immigration  continued, 
freemen  clung  closely  to  their  right  to  keep  out 
strangers  and  outsiders.  From  the  Boston  Town 
Records  of  17 14  we  find  citizens  still  prohibited 
from  entertaining  a  stranger  without  giving  notice 
to  the  town  authorities,  and  a  description  of  the 
stranger  and  his  circumstances.  Boston  required 
that  all  coming  from  Ireland  should  be  registered 
"  lest  they  become  chargeable. "  Warnings  and 
whippings  out  of  town  still  continued.  All  this  was 
so  contrary  to  the  methods  of  colonies  in  other 
countries,  such  as  the  Barbadoes,  Honduras,  etc., 
where  extraordinary  privileges  were  offered  settlers, 
free  and  large  grants  of  land,  absolvment  from  past 
debts,  etc.,  that  it  makes  an  early  example  of  the 
curious  absorbing  and  assimilating  power  of  Ameri- 
can nationality,  which  ever  grew  and  grew  even 
against  such  clogs  and  hampering  restrictions. 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


395 


In  the  Southern  colonies  the  same  kindliness 
existed  as  in  the  North,  but  the  conditions  differed. 
John  Hammond,  of  Virginia,  wrote  in  1656,  in  his 
Leah  and  Rachel:  — 

"The  Country  is  not  only  plentifull,  but  pleasant  and 
profitable,  pleasant  in  regard  of  the  extraordinary  good 
neighbourhood  and  loving  conversation  they  have  one 
with  another. 

"  The  inhabitants  are  generally  affable,  courteous,  and 
very  assistant  to  Strangers  (for  what  but  plenty  makes 
hospitality  and  good  neighbourhood)  and  no  sooner  are 
they  settled,  but  they  will  be  visiting,  presenting  and  ad- 
vising the  strangers  how  to  improve  what  they  have,  how 
to  better  their  way  of  livelihood." 

In  summer  when  fresh  meat  was  killed,  the 
neighbors  shared  the  luxury,  and  in  turn  gave  of 
their  slaughter.    Hammond  adds  :  — 

"If  any  fall  sick  and  cannot  compass  to  follow  his  crops 
which  would  soon  be  lost,  the  adjoining  neighbour,  or  upon 
request  more  joyn  together  and  work  it  bv  spells,  until  he 
recovers  ;  and  that  gratis,  so  that  no  man  may  by  sickness 
loose  any  part  of  his  year's  work. 

"  Let  any  travell,  it  is  without  charge  and  at  every  house 
is  entertainment  as  in  a  hostelry." 

It  was  the  same  in  the  Carolinas.  Ramsay,  the 
early  historian  of  South  Carolina,  said  that  hospital- 
ity was  such  a  virtue  that  innkeepers  complained 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


that  their  business  was  not  worth  carrying  on.  The 
doors  of  citizens  were  open  to  all  decent  travellers, 
and  shut  to  none. 

The  plantations  were  in  many  counties  too  far 
apart  for  any  cooperative  labor,  and  the  planters 
were  not  men  of  such  vast  strength  or  so  great  per- 
sonal industry,  even  in  their  own  affairs,  as  were  the 
Yankees.  There  were  slaves  on  each  plantation  to 
do  all  the  hard  work  of  lifting,  etc.  But  in  out-of- 
the-way  settlements  the  Virginia  planters'  kindliness 
was  shown  in  a  vast  and  unbounded  hospitality,  a 
hospitality  so  insatiable  that  it  watched  for  and  way- 
laid travellers  to  expend  a  welcome  and  lavish  atten- 
tions upon.  Negroes  were  stationed  at  the  planter's 
gate  where  it  opened  on  the  post-road  or  turnpike, 
to  hail  travellers  and  assure  them  of  a  hearty  wel- 
come at  the  "  big  house  up  yonder."  One  writer 
says  of  the  planters  :  — 

"  Their  manner  of  living  is  most  generous  and  open  : 
strangers  are  sought  after  with  Greediness  to  be  invited." 

The  London  Magazine  of  the  year  1743  published 
a  series  of  papers  entitled  Itinerant  Observations  in 
America.  It  was  written  with  a  spirited  pen  which 
thus  pleasantly  describes  simple  Maryland  hospi- 
tality, not  of  men  of  vast  wealth  but  of  very  poor 
folk :  — 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


397 


u  With  the  meaner  Sort  you  find  little  else  to  drink  but 
Water  amongst  them  when  their  Cyder  is  spent,  but  the 
Water  is  presented  you  by  one  of  the  barefooted  Family  in 
a  copious  Calabash,  with  an  innocent  Strain  of  good  Breed- 
ing and  Heartiness,  the  Cake  baking  on  the  Hearth,  and 
the  prodigious  Cleanliness  of  everything  around  you  must 
needs  put  you  in  Mind  of  the  Golden  Age,  the  Times  of 
ancient  Frugality  and  Purity.  All  over  the  Colony  a  uni- 
versal Hospitality  reigns,  full  Tables  and  open  Doors ;  the 
kind  Salute,  the  generous  Detention  speak  somewhat  like 
the  roast-Beef  Ages  of  our  Forefathers. " 

There  came  a  time  when  this  Southern  hospitality 
became  burdensome.  With  the  exhaustion  of  the 
soil  and  competition  in  tobacco-raising,  the  great 
wealth  of  the  Virginians  was  gone.  But  visitors  did 
not  cease;  in  fact,  they  increased.  The  generous 
welcome  offered  to  kinsmen,  friends,  and  occasional 
travellers  was  sought  by  curiosity-hunters  and  tour- 
ists who  wanted  to  save  a  tavern-bill.  Nothing 
could  be  more  pathetic  than  the  impoverishment 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  through  these  impositions. 
Times  and  conditions  had  changed,  but  Jefferson 
felt  bound  in  honor  to  himself  and  his  state  to  keep 
the  same  open  hand  and  ready  welcome  as  of  yore. 
His  overseer  describes  his  own  hopeless  efforts  to 
keep  these  travelling  friends  and  admirers  from 
eating  his  master  out  of  house  and  home:  — 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


"  They  were  there  all  times  of  the  year ;  but  about  the 
middle  of  June  the  travel  would  commence  from  the  lower 
part  of  the  State  to  the  Springs,  and  then  there  was  a  per- 
fect throng  of  visitors.  They  travelled  in  their  own  car- 
riages and  came  in  gangs,  the  whole  family  with  carriage 
and  riding  horses  and  servants,  sometimes  three  or  four 
such  gangs  at  a  time.  We  had  thirty-six  stalls  for  horses 
and  only  used  ten  of  them  for  the  stock  we  kept  there. 
Very  often  all  the  rest  were  full,  and  I  had  to  send  horses 
off  to  another  place.  I  have  often  sent  a  wagon-load  of 
hay  up  to  the  stable,  and  the  next  morning  there  would 
not  be  enough  left  to  make  a  bird's  nest.  I  have  killed  a 
fine  beef,  and  it  would  all  be  eaten  up  in  a  day  or  two." 

The  final  extinction  of  old-time  hospitality  in 
Virginia  came  not  from  a  death  of  hospitable  intent, 
but  from  an  entire  vanishing  of  the  means  to  fur- 
nish entertainment.  And  the  Civil  War  drove  away 
even  the  lingering  ghost. 

Many  general  customs  existed  in  the  early  colo- 
nies which  were  simply  exemplifications  of  neigh- 
borliness  put  in  legal  form.  Such  were  the  systems 
of  common  lands  and  herding.  This  was  an  old 
Aryan  custom  which  existed  many  centuries  ago, 
and  has  ever  been  one  of  the  best  ways  of  uniting 
any  settlement  of  people,  especially  a  new  settle- 
ment; for  it  makes  the  interest  of  one  the  interest 
of  all,  and  promotes  union  rather  than  selfishness. 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


399 


Common  lands  were  set  off  and  common  herds 
existed  in  many  of  the  Northern  colonies;  cow- 
herds or  "  cow-keeps "  were  appointed  and  paid 
by  the  town  to  care  throughout  the  summer  for  all 
the  cattle  owned  by  the  inhabitants.  This  was  an 
intelligent  provision  ;  for  it  saved  much  work  of 
individuals  during  the  months  when  farmers  had 
so  much  hard  work  to  do,  and  so  short  a  time  to 
do  it  in.  In  Albany  and  New  York  the  cowherd 
and  "  a  chosen  proper  youngster  "  —  in  other  words, 
a  good,  steady  boy  —  went  through  the  town  at 
sunrise  sounding  a  horn,  which  the  cattle  heard  and 
knew ;  and  they  quickly  followed  him  to  green 
pastures  outside  the  town.  There  they  lingered  till 
nearly  sunset,  when  they  were  brought  home  to  the 
church,  and  the  owners  were  again  warned  by  the 
horn  of  the  safe  return  of  their  cattle,  and  that  it 
was  milking  time.  Sometimes  the  cowherd  re- 
ceived part  of  his  pay  in  butter  or  cheese.  In 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  Cowherd  Rice,  in  1635, 
agreed  to  take  charge  of  one  hundred  cows  for  three 
months  for  ten  pounds.  The  town  also  paid  two 
men  or  boys  to  help  him  the  first  two  weeks,  and 
one  man  a  week  longer ;  he  kept  the  cows  alone 
after  that,  for  the  intelligent  cattle  had  fallen  into 
habits  of  order  and  obedience  to  his  horn.  He  had 
to  pay  threepence  fine  each  time  he  failed  to  bring 
in  all  the  cattle  at  night. 


4-00  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


On  Long  Island  and  in  Connecticut  there  were 
cowherds,  calf-keepers,  and  pound-keepers.  The 
calf-keepers'  duties  were  to  keep  the  calves  away 
from  the  cows,  water  them,  protect  them,  etc.  In 
Virginia  and  Maryland  there  were  cow-pens  in  early 
days,  and  cowherds ;  but  in  the  South  the  cattle 
generally  roamed  wild  through  the  forests,  and  were 
known  to  their  owners  by  earmarks.  In  all  com- 
munities earmarks  and  other  brands  of  ownership  on 
cattle,  horses,  sheep,  and  swine  were  very  important, 
and  rigidly  regarded  where  so  much  value  was  kept 
in  domestic  cattle.  These  earmarks  were  registered 
by  the  town  clerk  in  the  town  records,  and  were 
usually  described  both  in  words  and  rude  drawings. 
One  of  my  great-great-grandfather's  earmarks  for 
his  cows  was  a  "swallow-fork  slit  in  both  ears"; 
another  was  a  slit  under  the  ear  and  a  "  half-penny 
mark  on  the  foreside  of  the  near  ear."  This  custom 
of  herding  cattle  in  common  lasted  in  some  out-of- 
the-way  places  to  this  century,  and  even  lingered 
long  in  large  cities  such  as  Boston,  where  cows  were 
allowed  to  feed  on  Boston  Common  till  about  1840. 
In  Philadelphia  until  the  year  1795  a  cowherd 
stood  every  morning  at  the  corner  of  Dock  and 
Second  streets,  blew  his  horn,  tramped  off  to  a 
distant  pasture  followed  by  all  the  cows  of  his 
neighborhood,  who  had  run  out  to  him  as  soon  as 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


401 


they  heard  the  familiar  sound.  He  led  them  back 
to  the  same  place  at  night,  when  each  returned  alone 
to  her  own  home. 

Sheep-herds  or  shepherds  in  colonial  days  also 
took  charge  of  the  sheep  of  many  owners  in  herd- 
walks,  or  ranges,  by  day,  and  by  night  in  sheep- 
folds  built  with  fences  and  gates. 

Fence-viewers  were  men  who  were  appointed  by 
the  town  for  common  benefit  to  take  charge  of 
building  and  keeping  in  repair  the  fences  that  sur- 
rounded the  "  great  lotts "  or  commons  ;  that  is, 
the  enclosed  fields  which  were  the  common  property 
of  each  town,  in  which  all  farmers  living  near  could 
place  their  cattle.  The  fence-viewers  saw  that  each 
man  worked  a  certain  amount  each  year  on  these 
"pales"  as  the  fences  were  called,  or  paid  his  share 
for  the  work  of  others.  Each  farmer  or  cow-owner 
usually  built  about  twenty  feet  of  fence  for  each  cow 
which  he  pastured  in  the  "great  lotts."  The  fence- 
viewers  also  examined  the  condition  of  fences  around 
private  lands;  noted  breaks  and  ordered  repairs. 
For  if  cattle  broke  through  a  poorly  made  fence, 
and  did  damage  to  crops,  the  fence-owner  had  to 
stand  the  loss,  while  if  the  fences  were  good  and 
strong,  proving  the  cattle  unruly  and  destructive, 
the  owner  of  the  cattle  had  to  pay.  All  the  colonies 
were  watchful  over  the  safe-keeping  of  fences.  In 

2  D 


4-02  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


1659  the  Dutch  rulers  of  New  Amsterdam  (now 
New  York)  ordered  that  for  "  stripping  fences  of 
rails  and  posts"  the  offender  should  be  whipped  and 
branded,  and  for  a  second  offence  he  could  be  pun- 
ished by  death.  This  seems  cruelly  severe,  but  that 
year  there  was  a  great  scarcity  of  grain  and  other  food, 
and  if  the  fences  were  pulled  down,  cattle  could  get 
into  fields  and  eat  up  the  growing  crops,  and  famine 
and  death  might  result. 

Sometimes  a  common  field  was  fenced  in  and 
planted  with  Indian  corn.  In  this  case  the  fence 
served  to  keep  the  cattle  out,  not  in.  This  was 
always  the  case  in  Virginia. 

Hay-wards  were,  as  the  name  indicates,  men  to 
keep  watchful  care  over  the  growing  hay.  For  in- 
stance, in  Hadley,  Massachusetts,  in  1661,  Goodman 
Montague  was  chosen  hay-ward  by  the  town.  He 
was  to  have  twelvepence  for  each  cow  or  hog,  two 
shillings  for  each  horse,  and  twenty  pence  for  each 
twenty  sheep  that  he  found  loose  in  any  field  or 
meadow,  and  successfully  turned  out.  The  owner 
of  the  animal  was  to  pay  the  fine.  At  a  later  date 
these  hay-wards  were  called  field-drivers.  They  are 
still  appointed  in  many  towns  and  cities,  among 
them  Boston. 

Hog-reeves  were  men  appointed  by  the  citizens 
to  look  after  their  hogs  that  roamed  the  roads  and 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


streets,  to  see  that  all  those  swine  had  rings  in  their 
noses,  were  properly  marked,  and  did  not  do  damage 
to  crops.  Many  towns  had  hog-reeves  till  this 
century ;  for  until  seventy  years  ago  hogs  ran  freely 
everywhere,  even  in  the  streets  of  our  great  cities. 
It  was  a  favorite  jest  to  appoint  a  newly  married 
man  hog-reeve.  When  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  was 
married  and  became  a  householder  in  Concord, 
the  young  philosopher  was  appointed  to  that  office. 
Sometimes  a  single  swineherd  was  hired  to  take  care 
of  the  roving  swine.  The  two  Salem  swineherds  or 
swine-keepers  in  1640  were  to  have  sixpence  for 
each  hog  they  drove  daily  to  pasture  from  April  to 
November.  These  and  many  other  public  offices 
were  simply  a  form  of  legalized  cooperation ;  a 
joining  together  of  neighbors  for  public  good. 

The  neighborly  assistance  given  to  new  settlers 
began  with  the  clearing  of  the  ground  for  occupancy. 
The  girdling  of  trees  was  easy  and  speedy,  but  it 
was  discountenanced  as  dangerous  and  hideous,  and 
was  not  frequently  practised.  A  chopping-bee  was 
a  universal  method  among  pioneers  of  clearing 
ground  in  newly  settled  districts,  or  even  in  older 
townships  in  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  and  Maine, 
where  great  tracts  of  land  were  left  for  many  years  in 
the  original  growth.  Sometimes  this  bee  was  held 
to  clear  land  for  a  newly  married  man,  or  a  new 


404  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

neighbor,  or  one  who  had  had  bad  luck ;  but  it  was 
just  as  freely  given  to  a  prosperous  farmer,  though 
plentiful  thanks  and  plentiful  rum  were  the  only 
rewards  of  the  willing  workers. 

All  the  strong  men  of  the  township  repaired  at 
an  early  hour  to  the  tract  to  be  cleared,  and  with 
powerful  blows  attacked  the  great  trees.  A  favorite 
way  of  bringing  the  day's  work  and  the  day's  excite- 
ment to  a  climax  was  by  a  "  drive."  This  was  made 
by  chopping  half-way  into  the  trunks  of  a  great  group 
or  circle  of  trees  —  under-cutting  it  was  called  — 
so  that  by  a  few  powerful  and  well-driven  blows  at  the 
monarch  of  the  group,  and  perhaps  a  few  well-con- 
certed pulls  on  a  rope,  the  entire  group  could  be 
felled  together,  the  leader  bringing  down  with  his 
spreading  branches  in  his  mighty  fall  his  fellows  in 
front  of  him,  and  they  in  turn  their  neighbors,  with 
a  crash  that  shook  the  earth  and  made  the  moun- 
tains ring.  It  was  dangerous  work;  accidents  were 
frequent ;  the  records  of  death  at  log-rollings  are 
pathetic  to  read  and  to  think  of,  in  a  country  where 
the  loss  of  a  sturdy  man  meant  so  much  to  some 
struggling  household.  A  heavy  and  sudden  gust 
of  wind  might  blow  down  a  small  tree,  which  had 
been  carelessly  "under-cut,"  and  thus  give  an  un- 
expected and  premature  collapse  of  the  simple 
machinery  of  the  grand  finale. 


Colonial  Neighborliness  405 


A  century  ago  a  New  Hampshire  woman  and  her 
husband  went  out  into  the  forest  primeval ;  he  cut 
down  a  few  trees,  made  a  little  clearing  termed  a 
cut-down  wherein  a  tiny  patch  of  sky  and  cloud 
and  scant  sunlight  could  be  seen  overhead,  but  no 
sunrise  or  sunset,  and  built  a  log  house  of  a  single 
room  —  a  home.  With  the  opening  spring  came 
one  day  a  group  of  kindly  settlers  from  distant 
clearings  and  settlements,  some  riding  from  ten 
miles  away  the  previous  day.  In  front  of  the  log 
house  they  chopped  all  the  morning  long  with 
sturdy  arms  and  swinging  blows,  yet  felled  nothing, 
till  in  the  afternoon  when  all  was  ready  for  the  final 
blow  at  the  towering  leader,  which  by  its  fall  should 
lay  low  a  great  sloping  tract  for  a  dooryard  and 
home  field.  As  the  noble  trees  fell  at  last  to  the 
earth  with  a  resounding  crash,  lo  !  in  the  opening 
there  appeared  to  the  startled  eyes  of  the  settler's 
wife,  as  if  rising  out  of  heaven,  a  neighbor  in  her 
loneliness  —  Mount  Kearsage,  grand,  serene,  and 
beautiful,  crowned  with  the  glories  of  the  setting 
sun,  standing  guard  over  a  smiling  lake  at  its  foot. 
And  every  day  through  her  long  and  happy  life  till 
ninety-six  years  old,  as  she  looked  at  the  splendid 
mountain,  standing  as  it  will  till  time  shall  be  no 
more,  did  she  thank  God  for  His  gift,  for  that 
noble  companionship  which  came  so  suddenly,  so 


406  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


inspiringly,  upon  the  cramped  horizon  of  her  lonely 
forest  home. 

After  the  trees  were  all  felled,  it  was  no  longer  a 
"  cut-down  "  but  an  "  opening."  This  was  made 
preferably  in  the  spring.  The  fallen  trees  were  left 
some  months  on  the  ground  to  dry  in  the  summer 
sun,  while  the  farmer  turned  to  other  work  on  his 
farm,  or,  if  he  were  starting  in  life,  hired  out  for  the 
summer.  In  the  autumn  the  tops  were  set  on  fire, 
and  the  lighter  limbs  usually  burned  out,  leaving 
the  great  charred  tree-trunks.  Then  came  what 
was  known  as  a  piling-bee,  a  perfect  riot  of  hard 
work,  cinders,  and  dirt.  Usually  the  half-burned 
tree-trunks  were  "  niggered  off"  in  Indian  fashion, 
by  burning  across  with  a  smaller  stick  of  wood  till 
the  long  log  was  in  lengths  which  could  be  dragged 
by  the  farmers  with  their  oxen  and  horses  into  vast 
piles  and  again  set  on  fire.  Another  treat  of  rum 
accompanied  this  day's  work.  The  word  "  log- 
rolling "  was  often  applied  to  the  latter  bee,  and 
occasionally  the  felling  of  trees  and  dragging  into 
piles  for  firing  was  done  in  a  single  log-rolling. 

Sometimes  before  the  opening  was  cleared  it  was 
planted.  The  spring  rains  and  melting  snows 
carried  the  fertilizing  ashes  deep  into  the  soil. 
Corn  was  planted  and  "  dug  in  "  ;  rye  was  sowed 
and  "  hacked  in."    The  crops  were  astonishing  ;  the 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


407 


grain  grew  among  the  fallen  logs  and  stumps  in  riot- 
ing luxuriance.  A  stump-pulling  was  another  occa- 
sion for  a  friendly  bee,  to  clear  off  and  put  into 
comely  shape  the  new  field. 

Another  exhibition  of  cooperation  was  in  a 
stone-hauling  or  a  stone-bee.  Some  of  the  rocky 
fields  of  hard  New  England  would  defy  a  lifetime  of 
work  of  one  man  and  a  single  yoke  of  oxen.  With 
judicious  blasting,  many  oxen,  strong  arms,  and 
willing  hearts  the  boulders  and  ledges  were  tamed. 
Stone  walls  eight  feet  wide,  such  as  may  be  seen  in 
Hopkinton,  New  Hampshire,  stand  as  monuments 
of  the  patience,  strength,  skill,  and  cooperation  of 
our  forbears. 

To  show  the  struggle  and  hard  work  willingly 
done  for  a  home,  let  me  give  the  statement  in  1870 
of  a  respected  citizen,  the  historian  of  Norridge- 
wock,  Maine,  when  he  was  over  ninety  years  old. 
He  served  an  apprenticeship  of  eight  years  till  he 
was  twenty-one,  then  bought  on  credit  a  tract  of 
fifty  acres  in  the  primeval  woods.  On  eight  acres 
he  felled  the  trees  and  left  them  through  the  winter. 
In  April,  1801,  he  spent  three  weeks  in  burning  off 
the  logs  and  clearing  as  well  as  possible  by  hand- 
work three  acres.  These  he  sowed  with  wheat  and 
rye,  buying  the  seed  on  credit.  He  hired  a  yoke 
of  oxen  for  one  day  and  did  what  harrowing  he 


408  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


could  in  that  short  time,  grubbing  around  the 
stumps  with  a  hoe  for  two  more  days.  The  crop 
grew,  as  did  all  others  on  similar  soil,  amazingly. 
The  two  bushels  of  seed-wheat  yielded  fifty-two 
bushels,  the  bushel  of  rye  thirty  bushels.  On  his 
other  five  acres  among  the  fallen  trees  he  planted 
corn,  and  raised  a  hundred  and  twenty-eight  bushels. 
He  adds :  — 

"  When  I  could  leave  my  work  on  my  new  land  I 
worked  out  haying  and  other  work.  I  made  shoes  in  the 
Fall,  taught  school  in  the  Winter,  paid  for  my  board  and 
some  clothing,  but  husbanded  my  resources  to  pay  for  my 
land.  At  the  end  of  the  year  found  myself  worth  two 
hundred  dollars.  I  continued  to  clear  up  four  acres  each 
year  till  I  had  cleared  the  fifty  acres,  planted  an  orchard 
and  erected  suitable  farm  buildings  and  fences." 

Six  years  later  he  married  and  prospered.  In 
eleven  years  he  was  worth  two  thousand  dollars; 
he  filled,  during  his  long  life,  many  positions  of 
trust  and  of  profit,  and  did  many  and  varied  good 
deeds;  he  continued  in  active  life  till  he  was  ninety 
years  old.  At  his  death  he  left  a  considerable  fort- 
une. It  is  an  interesting  picture  of  the  value  of 
honorable  economy  and  thrift;  a  typical  New  Eng- 
land picture,  with  a  certain  vigor  and  stimulus  about 
it  that  makes  it  pleasing. 

A  "  raising  "  might  be  of  a  church  or  a  school- 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


409 


house,  or  of  a  house  or  barn  for  a  neighbor.  All 
the  strong  men  far  and  near  turned  out  to  help, 
tools  were  lent,  and  many  strong  hands  and  arms 
made  quick  work.  Often  the  frame  of  a  whole  side 
of  a  house — the  broadside  —  was  fastened  together 
on  the  ground.  After  it  was  laid  out  and  pinned 
together,  shores  of  long  poles  were  attached  to  the 
plates  with  ox-chains,  and  it  was  literally  lifted 
into  place  by  the  united  strength  of  the  entire  band 
of  men  and  boys.  Sometimes  women  pulled  on 
the  rope  to  express  their  good  will  and  helpfulness. 
Then  the  other  sides  were  put  up,  and  the  cross- 
beams, braces,  and  studding  all  pinned  and  nailed 
into  place.  Afterwards  the  huge  rafters  were  raised 
for  the  roof.  Each  man  was  assigned  in  the  begin- 
ning to  his  place  and  work,  and  worked  faithfully 
when  his  turn  came.  When  the  ridge-pole  was  put 
in  place,  the  building  was  christened,  as  it  was  called, 
by  breaking  over  it  a  bottle  of  rum.  Often  the 
house  was  literally  given  a  name.  Sitting  astride 
the  ridge-pole,  one  poet  sang:  — 

"  Here's  a  mighty  fine  frame 
Which  desarves  a  good  name, 
Say  what  shall  we  call  it  ? 
The  timbers  all  straight, 
And  was  hewed  fust  rate, 
The  frame  is  well  put  together. 


410  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

It  is  a  good  frame 

That  desarves  a  good  name, 

Say  !  what  shall  we  name  it  ?  " 

Another,  a  Rochester,  New  Hampshire,  frame 
was  celebrated  in  verse  which  closed  thus  :  — 

"  The  Flower  of  the  Plain  is  the  name  of  this  Frame, 
We've  had  exceeding  good  Luck  in  raising  the  Same. 55 

It  was  not  luck  that  made  these  raisings  a  suc- 
cess, it  was  skill  and  strength;  skill  and  powers 
of  endurance  which  could  overcome  and  surmount 
even  the  quantity  of  vile  New  England  rum  with 
which  the  workmen  were  plied  throughout  the  day. 
Accidents  were  frequent,  and  often  fatal.  A  great 
frame  of  a  meeting-house,  or  a  vast  barn  with  forty 
or  fifty  men  at  work  on  it,  could  not  collapse  with- 
out loss  of  life  and  much  injury  of  limb. 

In  the  work  of  these  raisings  the  highest  as  well 
as  the  humblest  citizens  took  part.  Truly  a  man 
could  glow  with  the  warmth  of  home  even  in  a  bare 
and  scantily  furnished  house,  at  the  thought  that 
the  walls  and  rafters  were  held  in  place  by  the  kind 
wishes  and  deeds  of  all  his  friends  and  neighbors. 

There  is  nothing  in  nature  so  unnatural,  so  sin- 
gular in  quality,  as  the  glittering  artificiality  of  the 
early  morning  in  the  country  the  day  after  a  heavy, 
drifting,  New  England  snowstorm.    For  a  day  and 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


a  night  the  wildly  whirling  snow  that  "  driving  o'er 
the  fields  seems  nowhere  to  alight "  has  restrained 
the  outlook,  and  every  one  has  turned  depressed 
from  that  outside  life  of  loneliness  and  gloom. 
The  following  morning  always  opens  with  an  ex- 
cessively bright  and  dazzling  sunshine  which  is  not 
like  any  other  sunshine  in  any  place  or  season,  but 
is  wholly  artificial,  like  the  lime-light  of  a  theatre. 
We  always  run  eagerly  to  the  window  to  greet  once 
more  the  signs  of  life  and  cheerfulness ;  but  the 
landscape  is  more  devoid  of  life  and  reality  than 
during  any  storm  of  wind  and  snow  and  sleet,  no 
matter  how  dark  and  lowering.  There  is  a  changed 
aspect  in  everything;  it  is  metallic,  and  everything 
is  made  of  the  same  horrible  white  metal.  Nothing 
seems  familiar;  not  only  are  the  wonted  forms  and 
outlines  vanished,  and  all  their  varied  textures  and 
materials  and  beautiful  diversity  of  color  gone  also, 
but  there  is  a  steely  immobility  restraining  every- 
thing which  is  so  complete  that  it  seems  as  if  it 
were  a  shell  that  could  never  be  broken, 

"  We  look  upon  a  world  unknown, 
On  nothing  we  can  call  our  own." 

It  is  no  longer  a  real  landscape  but  an  artificial 
encircling  diorama  of  meaningless  objects  made  of 
vast  unshaded  sheets  of  white  glazed  Bristol-board, 


412  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

painted  with  white  enamel,  warranted  not  to  crack ; 
with  the  garish  high-lights  put  in  crystallized  alum 
or  possibly  powdered  glass.  It  is  without  life,  or 
atmosphere,  or  reality;  it  has  nothing  but  the  mil- 
lion reflections  of  that  artificial  and  repellent  sun- 
shine. In  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  even  in  a  few 
minutes,  it  is  agonizingly  monotonous  to  the  spirit 
as  it  is  painful  to  the  eye ;  then,  like  a  veritable  oasis 
of  color  and  motion  in  an  unmovable  glittering 
white  desert,  a  sound  and  sight  of  beautiful  and 
active  life  appears.  Around  the  bend  of  the  road 
comes  slow  and  straining  down  the  hill,  as  has  come 
through  the  glaring  artificial  sunlight  after  every 
heavy  snowstorm  for  over  a  century  past,  a  long 
train  of  oxen  with  a  snow-plough  "breaking  out" 
the  old  post-road.  Beautiful  emblems  of  patient 
and  docile  strength,  these  splendid  creatures  are 
never  so  grateful  to  the  sight  as  now.  Their  slow 
progress  down  the  hill  has  many  elements  to  make 
it  interesting;  it  is  historic.  Ever  since  the  township 
was  thickly  settled  enough  for  families  to  have  any 
winter  communication  with  each  other,  whether  for 
school,  church,  mail,  or  doctor,  this  road  has  been 
broken  out  in  precisely  this  same  way. 

In  nearly  all  scattered  townships  in  New  England 
the  custom  prevails  to-day  just  as  it  did  a  century 
and  more  ago  even  in  large  towns,  and  a  description 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


413 


of  the  present  "  breaking  out "  is  that  of  the  past 
also.  The  work  is  now  usually  done  in  charge  of 
road-surveyors  or  the  road-masters,  who  are  often 
appointed  from  the  remote  points  of  the  township. 
There  is,  therefore,  much  friendly  rivalry  to  see 
which  surveyor  will  first  reach  the  centre  of  the 
town  —  and  the  tavern.  Beginning  at  sunrise  with 
his  own  yoke  of  oxen  hitched  to  a  snow-plough, 
each  road-master  breaks  through  the  drift  to  the 
nearest  neighbor,  who  adds  his  yoke  to  the  other, 
and  so  from  neighbor  to  neighbor  till  sometimes 
fifteen  or  twenty  yoke  of  oxen  are  hitched  in  a 
long  line  to  the  plough.  Sometimes  a  pair  of  wild 
young  steers  are  hitched,  plunging  and  kicking, 
with  the  sober  elders.  By  this  time  the  first  yoke 
often  begins  to  show  signs  of  distress  by  lolling 
out  the  tongue,  a  sure  symptom  of  overwork  in 
oxen,  and  they  are  left  at  some  farmer's  barn  to 
cool  down. 

Whittier  thus  describes  the  scene  of  breaking  out 
the  winter  roads  in  his  Snow-Bound :  — 

"  Next  morn  we  wakened  with  the  shout 
Of  merry  voices  high  and  clear; 
And  saw  the  teamsters  drawing  near 
To  break  the  drifted  highways  out. 
Down  the  long  hillside  treading  slow 
We  saw  the  half-buried  oxen  go, 


414  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Shaking  the  snow  from  heads  uptost, 
Their  straining  nostrils  white  with  frost. 
Before  our  door  the  straggling  train 
Drew  up,  an  added  team  to  gain. 
The  elders  threshed  their  hands  a-cold, 
Passed,  with  the  cider  mug,  their  jokes 
From  lip  to  lip." 

Thus  are  the  white  snow-waste  and  the  drifted 
roads  turned  by  cheerful  cooperation  into  a  mid- 
winter visiting  where  every  neighbor  can  exchange 
greetings  with  the  other,  young  and  old.  For  of 
course  school  does  not  keep,  and  the  boys  crowd  on 
the  snow-plough  or  try  their  new  snowshoes,  and  the 
men  of  the  various  families  who  do  not  go  with 
the  oxen  hitch  up  the  sleighs,  pods,  and  pungs  and 
follow  the  snow-plough,  and  the  young  men  send  a 
volley  of  snowballs  against  every  house  where  any 
fair  maid  lives.  And  at  the  tavern  in  the  afternoon 
is  a  great  sight,  greater  in  ante-temperance  days  than 
now:  scores  of  yoke  of  oxen  at  the  door,  the  horse- 
sheds  full  of  horses  and  sleighs,  all  the  lads  and 
men  of  the  township  within.  There  is  rivalry  in 
the  method  of  breaking.  One  road-master  always 
used  a  snow-plough ;  another  lashed  an  ordinary 
plough  on  either  side  of  a  narrow  ox-sled;  a  third 
used  a  coarse  harrow  weighted  down  with  a  group 
of  standing  boys.    This  broke  up  the  drifts  in  a 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


415 


wonderful  manner.  The  deeper  drifts  often  have 
to  be  shovelled  out  partly  by  hand.  After  the  road 
to  the  tavern  is  broken,  the  road  to  the  school- 
house,  the  doctor's  house,  and  the  meeting-house 
come  next. 

The  roads  thus  made  were  not  permitted  in  former 
days  to  be  cut  up  idly  by  careless  use  ;  many  town- 
ships forbade  by  law  the  use  of  narrow  sleds  and 
sleighs.  The  roads  were  narrow  at  best;  often  when 
two  sleighs  met  the  horses  had  to  be  unharnessed, 
and  the  sleighs  lifted  past  over  each  other.  On 
lonely  hill-roads  or  straight  turnpikes,  where  team- 
sters could  see  some  distance  ahead,  turnouts  were 
made  where  one  sleigh  could  wait  for  another  to  pass. 

After  there  had  been  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  and  the 
roads  were  well  broken,  the  time  was  always  chosen 
where  any  logging  was  done  to  haul  logs  to  the 
sawmill  on  ox-sleds.  An  interesting  sled  was  used 
which  had  an  interesting  name,  —  chebobbin.  One 
writer  called  it  a  cross  between  a  tree  and  a  bob- 
sled. It  was  made  by  a  close  and  ingenious  adapta- 
tion of  natural  forms  of  wood,  which  made  excellent 
runners,  cross-bars,  etc. ;  they  were  fastened  together 
so  loosely  that  they  readily  adjusted  themselves  to 
the  inequalities  of  the  wood-roads.  The  word  and 
article  are  now  almost  obsolete.  In  some  localities 
chebobbin  became  tebobbin  and  tarboggin,  all  three 


416 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


being  adaptations  in  nomenclature,  as  they  were  in 
form,  of  the  Indian  toboggan  or  moose-sled,  —  a 
sledge  with  runners  or  flat  bottom  of  wood  or  bark, 
upon  which  the  red  men  drew  heavy  loads  over  the 
snow.  This  sledge  has  become  familiar  to  us  in 
the  light  and  strong  Canadian  form  now  used  for 
the  delightful  winter  sport  of  tobogganing. 

On  these  chebobbins  great  logs  were  hitched 
together  by  chains,  and  dragged  down  from  the 
upland  wood-lots.  Under  these  mighty  loads  the 
snow-tracks  got  an  almost  icy  polish,  prime  sledding 
for  country  sleighing  parties.  Sometimes  a  logging- 
bee  was  made  to  clear  a  special  lot  for  a  neighbor, 
and  a  band  of  wood-choppers  worked  all  day 
together.  It  was  cheerful  work,  though  the  men 
had  to  stand  all  day  in  the-  snow,  and  the  ther- 
mometer was  below  zero.  But  there  was  no  cutting 
wind  in  the  forest,  and  the  exercise  kept  the  blood 
warm.  Many  a  time  a  hearty  man  would  drop  his 
axe  to  wipe  the  sweat  from  his  brow.  Loose  wool- 
len frocks,  or  long-shorts,  two  or  three  over  each 
other,  were  warm  as  are  the  overlapping  feathers  of  a 
bird  ;  a  few  had  buckskin  or  sheepskin  waistcoats  ; 
their  hands  were  warmly  covered  with  home-knit 
mittens.  In  later  days  all  had  heavy  well-greased 
boots,  but  in  the  early  years  of  such  pioneer  settle- 
ments, as  the  towns  of  New  Hampshire  and  Ver- 


a 

IS 

o 

£> 

O 


7 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


417 


mont,  all  could  not  afford  to  wear  boots.  Their 
place  was  well  supplied  by  heavy  woollen  stockings, 
shoes,  and  an  over-covering  of  old  stockings,  or 
cloth  soaked  in  neat's-foot  oil ;  this  was  deemed  a 
positive  preventive  of  frozen  feet. 

It  was  the  custom  both  among  men  and  women 
to  join  forces  on  a  smaller  scale  and  have  a  little 
neighborly  visiting  by  what  was  called  "  change- 
work.  "  For  instance,  if  two  neighbors  both  were 
to  make  soap,  or  both  to  make  apple-butter,  or  both 
to  make  up  a  rag  carpet,  instead  of  each  woman  sit- 
ting at  home  alone  sewing  and  fitting  the  carpet, 
one  would  take  her  thimble  and  go  to  spend  the 
day,  and  the  two  would  sew  all  day  long,  finish  and 
lay  the  carpet  at  one  house.  In  a  few  days  the 
visit  would  be  returned,  and  the  second  carpet  be 
finished.  Sometimes  the  work  was  easier  when  two 
worked  together.  One  man  could  load  logs  and 
sled  them  down  to  the  sawmill  alone,  but  two  by 
"  change-work  "  could  accomplish  the  task  much 
more  rapidly  and  with  less  strain. 

Even  those  evil  days  of  New  England  house- 
holds, the  annual  house-cleaning,  were  robbed  of 
some  of  their  dismal  terrors  by  what  was  known  as 
a  "  whang, "  a  gathering  of  a  few  friendly  women 
neighbors  to  assist  one  another  in  that  dire  time, 
and  thus  speed  and  shorten  the  hours  of  misery. 

2  E 


4i 8  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


For  any  details  of  domestic  life  of  colonial  days 
the  reader  has  ever  to  turn  to  the  diary  of  Judge 
Samuel  Sewall  of  Boston,  just  as  the  student  of 
English  life  of  the  same  date  turns  to  the  diary  of 
Samuel  Pepys.  Sewall  was  a  Puritan  of  the  narrow 
type  of  the  later  days  of  Puritanism ;  and  there  is 
little  of  warmth  or  beauty  in  his  pages,  save  that 
throughout  them  there  shines  with  gentle  radiance 
the  unconscious  record  of  a  pure  and  never-dying 
neighborliness,  the  neighborliness  of  an  upright  and 
reserved  but  deeply  tender  Christian.  No  thought- 
ful person  can  read  the  simple  and  meagre,  but 
wholly  self-forgetful  entries  which  reveal  this  trait 
of  character  without  a  feeling  of  profound  respect 
and  even  affection  for  Sewall.  He  was  the  richest 
man  in  town,  and  one  of  the  most  dignified  of  citi- 
zens, a  busy  man  full  of  many  cares  and  plans.  But 
he  watched  by  the  bedside  of  his  sick  and  dying 
neighbors,  those  of  humble  station  as  well  as  his 
friends  and  kinsfolk,  nursing  them  with  tender  care, 
praying  with  them,  bringing  appetizing  gifts,  and 
also  giving  pecuniary  aid  to  the  household.  He 
afforded  even  more  homely  examples  of  neighborly 
feeling;  he  sent  "  tastes  of  his  dinner"  many  times 
to  friends  and  neighbors.  This  pleasant  custom 
lingered  till  the  present  day  in  New  England ;  I 
saw  last  summer,  several  times,  covered  treasures 


Colonial  Neighborliness 


419 


of  housewifery  being  carried  in  petty  amounts,  lit- 
erally "a  taste,"  to  tempt  tired  appetites  or  lonely 
diners.  The  gift  of  a  portion  of  the  over-bountiful 
supply  for  the  supper  of  a  wedding,  a  reception, 
etc.,  went  by  the  expressive  name  of  "  cold  party." 

In  rural  Pennsylvania  a  charming  and  friendly  cus- 
tom prevailed  among  country  folk  of  all  nationalities 
—  the  "  metzel-soup,"  the  "taste"  of  sausage-mak- 
ing. This  is  the  anglicized  form  of  Metzelsuppe  ; 
metzeln  means  to  kill  and  cut  to  pieces  —  espe- 
cially for  sausage  meat.  When  each  farmer  butch- 
ered and  made  sausage,  a  great  dish  heaped  with 
eight  or  ten  pounds  of  the  new  sausages  was  sent 
to  each  intimate  friend.  The  recipient  would  in 
turn  send  metzel-soup  when  his  family  killed  and 
made  sausage.  If  the  metzel-soup  were  not  re- 
turned, the  minister  promptly  learned  of  it  and 
set  at  work  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the 
offended  parties.  The  custom  is  dying  out,  and  in 
many  towns  is  wholly  vanished. 

Sewall  seemed  to  regard  it  as  a  duty,  and  doubt- 
less it  was  also  a  pleasure,  to  pray  for  and  with 
dying  friends.  His  is  not  the  only  old-time  diary 
that  I  have  read  in  which  those  long  prayers  are 
recorded,  nor  are  his  surprised  occasional  records  of 
the  impatience  of  dying  friends  the  only  ones  I 
have  seen.    A  very  sick  man,  even  though  he  were 


420  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


a  Puritan,  might  occasionally  tire  of  the  prayers  of 
laymen. 

Sewall  was  ever  ready  to  signify  his  good  will  and 
interest  in  his  neighbors'  advancing  fortunes,  by 
driving  a  nail  at  a  ship-building  or  a  pin  at  a  house- 
raising,  by  laying  a  stone  in  a  wall  or  a  foundation 
of  a  house,  the  latter,  apparently,  in  the  case  of 
some  very  humble  homes.  He,  the  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  served  on  the  watch,  walking .  and 
guarding  the  streets  and  his  neighbors'  safety  just 
as  faithfully  as  did  the  humblest  citizen. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


OLD-TIME    FLOWER  GARDENS 

ADJOINING  the  street  through  which  I  al- 
ways, in  my  childhood,  walked  slowly  each 
Sunday,  on  my  way  to  and  from  church, 
was  a  spot  to  detain  lingering  footsteps  —  a  beauti- 
ful garden  laid  out  and  tenanted  like  the  gardens  of 
colonial  days,  and  serene  with  the  atmosphere  of  a 
worthy  old  age ;  a  garden  which  had  been  tended 
for  over  half  a  century  by  a  withered  old  man  and 
his  wife,  whose  golden  wedding  was  spent  in  the 
house  they  had  built,  and  in  the  garden  they  had 
planted  when  they  were  bride  and  groom.  His 
back  was  permanently  bowed  with  constant  weeding 
and  pruning  and  planting  and  hoeing,  and  his  hands 
and  face  were  brown  as  the  soil  he  cultivated.  The 
"  hot-glowing "  crimson  peonies,  seedlings  which 
the  wife  had  sown  in  her  youth,  had  become  great 
shrubs,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  in  circumference. 
The  flowering  shrubs  were  trees.  Vigorous  borders 
of  box  crowded  across  the  paths  and  towered  on 
either  side,  till  one  could  scarcely  walk  through 

421 


422 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


them.  There  were  beautiful  fairy  groves  of  fox- 
gloves "gloriously  freckled,  purple,  and  white," 
and  tall  Canterbury  bells ;  and  at  stiffly  regular 
intervals  were  set  flowering  almonds,  St.  Peter's 
wreath,  Persian  lilacs,  "  Moses  in  the  burning 
bush,"  which  shrub  was  rare  in  our  town,  and 
"  laburnums  rich  in  streaming  gold,  syringas  ivory 
pure."  At  the  lower  ends  of  the  flower  borders 
were  rows  of  "  honey-blob  "  gooseberries,  and  aged 
currant  bushes,  gray  with  years,  overhung  by  a  few 
patriarchal  quince  and  crab-apple  trees,  in  whose 
low-spreading  gnarled  branches  I  spent  many  a 
summer  afternoon,  a  happy  visitor,  though  my  own 
home  garden  was  just  as  beautiful,  old-fashioned, 
and  flower-filled. 

The  varying  grades  of  city  streets  had  gradually 
risen  around  the  garden  until  it  lay  depressed  sev- 
eral feet  below  the  level  of  the  adjoining  streets,  a 
pleasant  valley,  —  like  Avalon, — 

"  Deep-meadowed,  happy,  fair,  with  orchard  lawns, 
And  bowery  hollows  crown'd  with  summer  seas." 

A  flight  of  stone  steps  led  down  to  it,  —  steps 
very  steep,  narrow,  and  slippery  with  green  moss, 
and  ladies'-delights  that  crowded  and  blossomed  in 
every  crack  and  crevice  of  the  stones.  On  each 
side  arose  terraces  to  the  street,  and  in  the  spring 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


423 


these  terraces  flushed  a  mass  of  vivid,  glowing  rose- 
color  from  blooming  moss-pink,  forming  such  a 
glory  that  pious  church-going  folk  from  the  other 
end  of  the  town  did  not  think  it  wicked  to  walk 
thither,  on  a  Sunday  morn  in  May,  to  look  at  the 
rosy  banks  that  sloped  to  the  valleyed  garden,  as 
they  had  walked  there  in  February  or  March  to  see 

M  Winter,  slumbering  in  the  open  air, 
Wear  on  his  smiling  face  a  dream  of  spring," 

in  the  shape  of  the  first  crocuses  and  snowdrops 
that  opened  beside  a  snow-drift  still  lingering  on  a 
shaded  bank;  and  to  watch  the  first  benumbed 
honey-bees  who  greeted  every  flower  that  bloomed 
in  that  cherished  spot,  and  who  buzzed  in  bleak 
March  winds  over  the  purple  crocus  and  "  blue 
flushing"  grape-hyacinth  as  cheerfully  as  though 
they  were  sipping  the  scarlet  poppies  in  sunny 
August. 

The  garden  edges  and  the  street  were  overhung 
by  graceful  larches  and  by  thorny  honey-locust  trees 
that  bore  on  their  trunks  great  clusters  of  powerful 
spines  and  sheltered  in  their  branches  an  exceed- 
ingly unpleasant  species  of  fat,  fuzzy  caterpillars, 
which  always  chose  Sunday  to  drop  on  my  garments 
as  I  walked  to  church,  and  to  go  with  me  to  meet- 
ing, and  in  the  middle  of  the  long  prayer  to  parade 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


on  my  neck,  to  my  startled  disgust  and  agitated 
whisking  away,  and  consequent  reproof  for  being 
noisy  in  meeting. 

What  fragrances  arose  from  that  old  garden,  and 
were  wafted  out  to  passers-by  !  The  ever-present, 
pungent,  dry  aroma  of  box  was  overcome  or  tem- 
pered, through  the  summer  months,  by  a  succes- 
sion of  delicate  flower-scents  that  hung  over  the 
garden-vale  like  an  imperceptible  mist;  perhaps  the 
most  perfect  and  clear  among  memory's  retrospec- 
tive treasures  was  that  of  the  pale  fringed  "  snow- 
pink,"  and  later,  "  sweet  william  with  its  homely 
cottage  smell. "  Phlox  and  ten-weeks  stock  were 
there,  as  everywhere,  the  last  sweet-scented  flowers 
of  autumn. 

At  no  time  was  this  old  garden  sweeter  than  in 
the  twilight,  the  eventide,  when  all  the  great  clumps 
of  snowy  phlox,  night-rockets,  and  luminous  even- 
ing primrose,  and  all  the  tangles  of  pale  yellow  and 
white  honeysuckle  shone  irradiated;  when, 

"  In  puffs  of  balm  the  night  air  blows 
The  burden  which  the  day  foregoes," 

and  scents  far  richer  than  any  of  the  day  —  the 
"spiced  air  of  night"  —  floated  out  in  the  dusky 
gloaming. 

Though  the  old  garden  had  many  fragrant  leaves 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


425 


and  flowers,  their  delicate  perfume  was  sometimes 
fairly  deadened  by  an  al- 
most mephitic  aroma  that 
came  from  an  ancient  blos- 
som, a  favorite  in  Shake- 
speare's day  —  the  jewelled 
bell  of  the  noxious  crown- 
imperial.  This  stately 
flower,  with  its  rich  color 
and  pearly  drops,  has 
through  its  evil  scent  been 
firmly  banished  from  our 
garden  borders. 

One  of  the  most  cheer- 
ful flowers  of  this  and  of 
my  mother's  garden  was 
the  happy-faced  little  pansy 
that  under  various  fanciful 
folk-names  has  ever  been 
loved.  Like  Montgom- 
ery's daisy,  it  "  blossomed 
everywhere."  Its  Italian 
name  means  "  idle 
thoughts " ;  the  German, 
"  little  stepmother."  Spen- 
ser called  it  "  pawnee."  Shakespeare  said  maidens 
called  it  "  love-in-idleness,"  and  Dravton  named  it 


Crown-imperial 


426  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

"  heartsease. "  Dr.  Prior  gives  these  names  — 
"  Herb  Trinity,  Three  Faces  under  a  Hood,  Fancy 
Flamy,  Kiss  Me,  Pull  Me,  Cuddle  Me  unto  You, 
Tickle  my  Fancy,  Kiss  Me  ere  I  Rise,  Jump  Up 
and  Kiss  Me,  Kiss  Me  at  the  Garden  Gate,  Pink  of 
my  Joan."  To  these  let  me  add  the  New  England 
folk-names  —  bird's-eye,  garden-gate,  johnny-jump- 
up,  kit-run-about,  none-so-pretty,  and  ladies' -de- 
light. All  these  testify  to  the  affectionate  and 
intimate  friendship  felt  for  this  laughing  and  fairly 
speaking  little  garden  face,  not  the  least  of  whose 
endearing  qualities  was  that,  after  a  half-warm,  snow- 
melting  week  in  January  or  February,  this  bright- 
some  little  "  delight "  often  opened  a  tiny  blossom 
to  greet  and  cheer  us  —  a  true  " jump-up-and-kiss- 
me,"  and  proved  by  its  blooming  the  truth  of  the 
graceful  Chinese  verse,  — 

"  Ere  man  is  aware 
That  the  spring  is  here 
The  plants  have  found  it  out." 

Another  dearly  loved  spring  flower  was  the  daf- 
fodil, the  favorite  also  of  old  English  dramatists 
and  poets,  and  of  modern  authors  as  well,  when  we 
find  that  Keats  names  a  daffodil  as  the  thing  of 
beauty  that  is  a  joy  forever.  Perhaps  the  happiest 
and  most  poetic  picture  of  daffodils  is  that  of  Dora 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens  427 


Wordsworth,  when  she  speaks  of  them  as  "  gay  and 
glancing,  and  laughing  with  the  wind."  Perdita, 
in  The  Winter  s  Tale,  thus  describes  them  in  her 
ever-quoted  list:  "Daffodils  that  come  before  the 
swallow  dares  and  take  the  winds  of  March  with 
beauty. "  Most  cheerful  and  sunny  of  all  our 
spring  flowers,  they  have  never  lost  their  old-time 
popularity,  and  they  still  laugh  at  our  bleak  March 
winds. 

Bouncing-bet  and  her  comely  hearty  cousins  of 
the  pink  family  made  delightsome  many  a  corner 
of  our  home  garden.  The  pinks  were  Jove's  own 
flowers,  and  the  carthusian  pink,  china  pink,  clove 
pink,  snow  pink,  plumed  pink,  mullein  pink,  sweet 
william,  maltese  cross,  ragged  robin,  catch-flv,  and 
campion,  all  made  gay  and  sweet  the  summer.  The 
clove  pink  was  the  ancestor  of  all  the  carnations. 

The  richest  autumnal  glory  came  from  the  cheer- 
ful marigold,  the  "golde"  of  Chaucer,  and  "  mary- 
bud"  of  Shakespeare.  This  flower,  beloved  of  all 
the  old  writers,  as  deeply  suggestive  and  emblematic, 
has  been  coldly  neglected  by  modern  poets,  as  for  a 
while  it  was  banished  from  modern  town  gardens  ; 
but  it  may  regain  its  popularity  in  verse  as  it  has  in 
cultivation.  In  farm  gardens  it  has  always  flour- 
ished, and  every  autumn  has  "  gone  to  bed  with  the 
sun  and  with  him  risen  weeping,"  and   has  given 


428  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


forth  in  the  autumn  air  its  acrid  odor,  which  to  me 
is  not  disagreeable,  though  my  old  herbal  calls  its 
"a  very  naughty  smell.,, 

A  favorite  shrub  in  our  garden,  as  in  every  coun- 
try dooryard,  was  southernwood,  or  lad's-love.  A 
sprig  of  it  was  carried  to  meeting  each  summer  Sun- 
day by  many  old  ladies,  and  with  its  finely  dissected, 
bluish-green  foliage,  and  clean  pungent  scent,  it  was 
pleasant  to  see  in  the  meeting-house,  and  pleasant 
to  sniff  at.  The  "  virtues  of  flowers  "  took  a  prom- 
inent place  in  the  descriptions  in  old-time  botanies. 
The  southernwood  had  strong  medicinal  qualities, 
and  was  used  to  cure  "vanityes  of  the  head." 

"  Take  a  quantitye  of  Suthernwood  and  put  it  upon 
kindled  coales  to  burn  and  being  made  into  powder  mix  it 
with  the  oyle  of  radishes  and  anoynt  a  balde  place  and  you 
shall  see  great  experiences." 

It  was  of  power  as  a  love  charm.  If  you  placed 
a  sprig  in  each  shoe  and  wore  it  through  the  day 
when  you  were  in  love,  you  would  then  also  in  some 
way  "  see  great  experiences." 

In  the  tender  glamour  of  happy  association,  all 
flowers  in  the  old  garden  seem  to  have  been  loved 
save  the  garish  petunias,  whose  sickish  odor  grew 
more  offensive  and  more  powerful  at  nightfall  and 
made  me  long  to  tear  them  away  from  their  dainty 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens  429 


garden-fellows,  and  the  portulaca  with  its  fleshy, 
worm-like  stems  and  leaves,  and  its  aggressively 
pushing  habits,  "  never  would  be  missed."  Per- 
haps its  close  relation  to  the  "  pusley,"  most 
hated  of  weeds,  makes  us  eye  it  askance. 

There  was  one  attribute  of  the  old-time  garden, 
one  part  of  nature's  economy,  which  added  much 
to  its  charm  —  it  was  the  crowding  abundance,  the 
over-fulness  of  leaf,  bud,  and  blossom.  Nature 
there  displayed  no  bare  expanses  of  naked  soil,  as 
in  some  too-carefully-kept  modern  parterres ;  the 
dull  earth  was  covered  with  a  tangle  of  ready-grow- 
ing, self-sowing,  lowly  flowers,  that  filled  every 
space  left  unoccupied  by  statelier  garden  favorites, 
and  crowded  every  corner  with  cheerful,  though 
unostentatious,  bloom.  And  the  close  juxtaposition, 
and  even  intermingling,  of  flowers  with  herbs,  vege- 
tables, and  fruits  gave  a  sense  of  homely  simplicity 
and  usefulness,  as  well  as  of  beauty.  The  soft, 
purple  eyes  of  the  mourning-bride  were  no  less 
lovely  to  us  in  "our  garden"  because  they  opened 
under  the  shade  of  currant  and  gooseberry  bushes  ; 
and  the  sweet  alyssum  and  candytuft  were  no  less 
honey-sweet.  The  delicate,  pinky-purple  hues  of 
the  sweet  peas  were  not  dimmed  by  their  vivid 
neighbors  at  the  end  of  the  row  of  poles  —  the 
scarlet  runners.    The  adlumia,  or  mountain  fringe, 


430  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


was  a  special  vine  of  our  own  and  known  by  a 
special  name  —  virgin's  bower.  With  its  delicate 
leaves,  almost  as  beautiful  as  a  maidenhair  fern, 
and  its  dainty  pink  flower,  it  festooned  the  ripening 
corn  as  wantonly  and  luxuriantly  as  it  encircled  the 
snowball  and  lilac  bushes. 

Though  "  colored  herbs  "  were  cultivated  in  Eng- 
land in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  as 
carefully  as  were  flowers,  —  striped  hollies,  variegated 
myrtles,  and  bays  being  the  gardener's  pride,  —  yet 
in  our  old  American  gardens  few  plants  were  grown 
for  their  variegated  or  odd-colored  foliage.  The 
familiar  and  ever-present  ribbon-grass,  also  called 
striped  grass,  canary  grass,  and  gardener's  garters, — 
whose  pretty  expanded  panicles  formed  an  almost 
tropical  effect  at  the  base  of  the  garden  hedge ; 
the  variegated  wandering  jew,  the  striped  leaves  of 
some  varieties  of  day-lilies  ;  the  dusty-miller,  with 
its  "  frosty  pow "  (which  was  properly  a  house 
plant),  fill  the  short  list.  The  box  was  the  sole 
evergreen. 

And  may  I  not  enter  here  a  plea  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  box-edgings  of  our  old  garden  borders  ? 
I  know  they  are  almost  obsolete  —  have  been  winter- 
killed and  sunburned  —  and  are  even  in  sorry  dis- 
repute as  having  a  graveyard  association,  and  as 
being  harborers  of  unpleasant  and  unwelcome  garden 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens  431 

visitors.  One  lover  of  old  ways  thus  indignantly 
mourns  their  passing  :  — 

"I  spoke  of  box-edgings.  We  used  to  see  them  in 
little  country  gardens,  with  paths  of  crude  earth.  Nowa- 
days, it  has  been  discovered  that  box  harbours  slugs,  and 
we  are  beginning  to  have  beds  with  tiled  borders,  while  the 
walks  are  of  asphalt.  For  a  pleasure-ground  in  Dante's 
Inferno  such  materials  might  be  suitable." 

For  its  beauty  in  winter  alone,  the  box  should 
still  find  a  place  in  our  gardens.  It  grows  to  great 
size.  Bushes  of  box  in  the  deserted  garden  at 
Vaucluse  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  are  fifteen  feet 
in  height,  and  over  them  spread  the  branches  of 
forest  trees  that  have  sprung  up  in  the  garden  beds 
since  that  neglected  pleasaunce  was  planted,  over  a 
century  ago.  The  beautiful  border  and  hedges  of 
box  at  Mount  Vernon,  the  home  of  Washington, 
plead  for  fresh  popularity  for  this  old-time  favorite. 

Our  mothers  and  grandmothers  came  honestly  by 
their  love  of  gardens.  They  inherited  this  affection 
from  their  Puritan,  Quaker,  or  Dutch  forbears, 
perhaps  from  the  days  when  the  famous  hanging 
gardens  of  Babylon  were  made  for  a  woman.  Bacon 
says  :  "  A  garden  is  the  purest  of  human  pleasures, 
it  is  the  greatest  refreshment  to  the  spirits  of  man." 
A  garden  was  certainly  the  greatest  refreshment  to 


43 2  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Flower  Garden,  Mount  Vernon 


the  spirits  of  a  woman  in  the  early  colonial  days, 
and  the  purest  of  her  pleasures  —  too  often  her  only 
pleasure. 

Quickly,  in  tender  memory  of  her  fair  English 
home,  the  homesick  goodwife,  trying  to  create  a 
semblance  of  the  birthplace  she  still  loved,  planted 
the  seeds  and  roots  of  homely  English  flowers  and 
herbs  that  grew  and  blossomed  under  bleak  New 
England  skies,  and  on  rocky  New  England  shores, 
as  sturdily  and  cheerfully  as  they  had  sprung  up  and 
bloomed  by  the  green  hedgerows  and  door-sides  in 
the  home  beyond  the  sea. 

In  the  year  1638,  and  again  in  1663,  an  English 
gentleman  named  John  Josselyn  came  to  New 
England.    He  published,  in  1672,  an  account  of 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


433 


these  two  visits.  He  was  a  man  of  polite  reading 
and  of  culture,  and  as  was  the  high  fashion  for 
gentlemen  of  his  day,  had  a  taste  for  gardening  and 
botany.  He  made  interesting  lists  of  plants  which 
he  noted  in  America  under  these  heads  :  — 

"  i.  Such  plants  as  are  common  with  us  in  England. 
"  2.  Such  plants  as  are  proper  to  the  country. 
"  3.   Such  plants  as  are  proper  to  the  country  and  have 
no  names. 

"4.  Such  plants  as  have  sprung  up  since  the  English 
planted  and  kept  cattle  in  New  England. 

"  5.  Such  Garden-Herbs  among  us  as  do  thrive  there 
and  of  such  as  do  not." 

This  last  division  is  the  one  that  specially  inter- 
ests us,  since  it  is  the  earliest  and  the  fullest  account 
of  the  gardens  of  our  forefathers,  after  they  had 
tamed  the  rugged  shores  of  the  New  World,  and 
made  them  obey  the  rule  of  English  husbandry. 
They  had  c<  good  store  of  garden  vegetables  and 
herbs  ;  lettuce,  sorrel,  parsley,  mallows,  chevril, 
burnet,  summer  savory,  winter  savory,  thyme,  sage, 
carrots,  parsnips,  beets,  radishes,  purslain,  beans"  ; 
"  cabbidge  growing  exceeding  well ;  pease  of  all  sorts 
and  the  best  in  the  world ;  sparagus  thrives  exceed- 
ingly, musk  mellons,  cucumbers,  and  pompions.,, 
For  grains  there  were  wheat,  rye,  barley,  and  oats. 

2  F 


434  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


There  were  other  garden  herbs  and  garden  flowers  : 
spearmint,  pennyroyal,  ground-ivy,  coriander,  dill, 
tansy  ;  "  feverfew  prospereth  exceedingly  ;  white 
sattin  groweth  pretty  well,  and  so  doth  lavender- 
cotton  ;  gilly  flowers  will  continue  two  years  ;  horse- 
leek  prospereth  notably  ;  hollyhocks  ;  comferie  with 
white  flowers  ;  clary  lasts  but  one  summer  ;  sweet- 
bryer  or  eglantine  ;  celandine  but  slowly  ;  blood- 
wort  but  sorrily,  but  patience  and  English  roses 
very  pleasantly/' 

Patience  and  English  roses  very  pleasantly  in 
truth  must  have  shown  their  fair  English  faces  to 
English  women  in  the  strange  land.  Dearly  loved 
had  these  brier-roses  or  dog-roses  been  in  England, 
where,  says  the  old  herbalist,  Gerard,  "  children  with 
delight  make  chains  and  pretty  gewgawes  of  the 
fruit;  and  cookes  and  gentlewomen  make  tarts  and 
suchlike  dishes  for  pleasure  thereof."  Hollyhocks, 
feverfew,  and  gillyflowers  must  have  made  a  sun- 
shine in  the  shady  places  in  the  new  home.  Many 
of  these  garden  herbs  are  now  common  weeds  or 
roadside  blossoms.  Celandine,  even  a  century  ago, 
was  "  common  by  fences  and  among  rubbish. " 
Tansy  and  elecampane  grow  everywhere.  Sweet- 
brier  is  at  home  in  New  England  pastures  and  road- 
sides. Spearmint  edges  our  brooks.  Ground-ivy 
is  a  naturalized  citizen.    It  is  easy  to  note  that  the 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


435 


flowers  and  herbs  beloved  in  gardens  and  medicinal 
waters  and  kitchens  "at  home"  were  the  ones  trans- 
planted here.  "Clary-water"  was  a  favorite  tonic 
of  Englishmen  of  that  day. 

The  list  of  "  such  plants  as  have  sprung  up  since 
the  English  planted  "  should  be  of  interest  to  every 


Abigail  Adams  Garden,  Quincy,  Massachusetts 

one  who  has  any  sense  of  the  sentiment  of  associa- 
tion, or  interest  in  laws  of  succession.  The  Spanish 
proverb  says  :  — 

"  More  in  the  garden  grows 
Than  the  gardener  sows." 

The  plantain  has  a  history  full  of  romance ;  its 
old  Northern  names  —  Wegetritt  in  German,  JVeeg- 


436  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


bree  in  Dutch,  Viebred  in  Danish,  and  Weybred  in 
Old  English,  all  indicating  its  presence  in  the  much- 
trodden  paths  of  man  —  were  not  lost  in  its  new 
home,  nor  were  its  characteristics  overlooked  by 
the  nature-noting  and  plant-knowing  red  man.  It 
was  called  by  the  Indian  "the  Englishman's  foot," 
says  Josselyn,  and  by  Kalm  also,  a  later  traveller  in 
1740;  "  for  they  say  where  an  Englishman  trod, 
there  grew  a  plantain  in  each  footstep."  Not  less 
closely  did  such  old  garden  weeds  as  motherwort, 
groundsel,  chickweed,  and  wild  mustard  cling  to 
the  white  man.  They  are  old  colonists,  brought 
over  by  the  first  settlers,  and  still  thrive  and  tri- 
umph in  every  kitchen  garden  and  back  yard  in  the 
land.  Mullein  and  nettle,  henbane  and  wormwood, 
all  are  English  emigrants. 

The  Puritans  were  not  the  only  flower-lovers 
in  the  new  land.  The  Pennsylvania  Quakers  and 
Mennonites  were  quick  to  plant  gardens.  Pastorius 
encouraged  all  the  Germantown  settlers  to  raise 
flowers  as  well  as  fruit.  Whittier  says  of  him  in  his 
Pennsylvania  Pilgrim :  — 

"  The  flowers  his  boyhood  knew 
Smiled  at  his  door,  the  same  in  form  and  hue, 
And  on  his  vines  the  Rhenish  clusters  grew." 

It  gives  one  a  pleasant  notion  of  the  old  Quaker, 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


437 


George  Fox,  to  read  his  bequest  by  will  of  a  tract 
of  land  near  Philadelphia  "for  a  playground  for  the 
children  of  the  town  to  play  on  and  for  a  garden  to 
plant  with  physical  plants,  for  lads  and  lassies  to 
know  simples,  and  learn  to  make  oils  and  oint- 
ments. " 

Among  Pennsylvanians  the  art  of  gardening 
reached  the  highest  point.  The  landscape  garden- 
ing was  a  reproduction  of  the  best  in  England. 
Our  modern  country  places  cannot  equal  in  this 
respect  the  colonial  country  seats  near  Philadelphia. 
Woodlands  and  Bush  Hill,  the  homes  of  the  Hamil- 
tons,  Cliveden,  of  Chief  Justice  Chew,  Fair  Hill, 
Belmont,  the  estate  of  Judge  Peters,  were  splendid 
examples.  An  ecstatic  account  of  the  glories  and 
wonders  of  some  of  them  was  written  just  after  the 
Revolution  by  a  visitor  who  fully  understood  their 
treasures,  the  Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler,  the  clergyman, 
statesman,  and  botanist. 

In  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  where  flowers  ever 
seem  to  thrive  with  extraordinary  luxuriance,  there 
were  handsome  gardens  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
A  description  of  Mr.  Bowler's  garden  during  the 
Revolution  reads  thus :  — 

"  It  contains  four  acres  and  has  a  grand  aisle  in  the 
middle.  Near  the  middle  is  an  oval  surrounded  with 
espaliers  of  fruit-trees,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  a  pedestal, 


438  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


on  which  is  an  armillary  sphere  with  an  equatorial  dial. 
On  one  side  of  the  front  is  a  hot-house  containing  orange- 
trees,  some  ripe,  some  green,  some  blooms,  and  various 
other  fruit-trees  of  the  exotic  kind  and  curious  flowers. 
At  the  lower  end  of  the  aisle  is  a  large  summer-house,  a 
long  square  containing  three  rooms,  the  middle  paved  with 
marble  and  hung  with  landscapes.  On  the  right  is  a  large 
private  library  adorned  with  curious  carvings.  There  are 
espaliers  of  fruit-trees  at  each  end  of  the  garden  and  curious 
flowering  shrubs.  The  room  on  the  left  is  beautifully 
designed  for  music  and  contains  a  spinnet.  But  the  whole 
garden  discovered  the  desolations  of  war." 

In  the  Southern  colonies  men  of  wealth  soon  had 
beautiful  gardens.  In  an  early  account  of  South 
Carolina,  written  in  1682,  we  find  :  — 

"  Their  Gardens  are  supplied  with  such  European  Plants 
and  Herbs  as  are  necessary  for  the  Kitchen,  and  they 
begin  to  be  beautiful  and  adorned  with  such  Flowers  as  to 
the  Smell  or  Eye  are  pleasing  or  agreeable,  viz. :  the  Rose, 
Tulip,  Carnation,  Lilly,  etc." 

By  the  middle  of  the  century  many  exquisite 
gardens  could  be  seen  in  Charleston,  and  they 
were  the  pride  of  Southern  colonial  dames.  Those 
of  Mrs.  Lamboll,  Mrs.  Hopton,  and  Mrs.  Logan 
were  the  largest.  The  latter  flower-lover  in  1779, 
when  seventy  years  old,  wrote  a  treatise  on  flower- 
raising  called   The  Gardener  s  Kalendar,  which  was 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


439 


read  and  used  for  many  years.  Mrs.  Laurens  had 
another  splendid  garden.  Those  Southern  ladies 
and  their  gardeners  constantly  sent  specimens  to 
England,  and  received  others  in  return.  The  let- 
ters of  the  day,  especially  those  of  Eliza  Lucas 
Pinckney,  ever  interested  in  floriculture  and  arbori- 
culture, show  a  constant  exchange  with  English 
flower-lovers. 

Beverley  wrote  of  Virginia,  in  1720:  "  A  garden 
is  nowhere  sooner  made  than  there.,,  William  Byrd 
and  other  travellers,  a  few  years  later,  saw  many 
beautiful  terraced  gardens  in  Virginian  homes. 
Mrs.  Anne  Grant  writes  at  length  of  the  love  and 
care  the  Dutch  women  of  the  past  century  had  for 
flowers :  — 

"  The  care  of  plants  such  as  needed  peculiar  care  or 
skill  to  rear  them,  was  the  female  province.  Every  one 
in  town  or  country  had  a  garden.  Into  the  garden  no  foot 
of  man  intruded  after  it  was  dug  in  the  spring.  I  think  I 
see  yet  what  I  have  so  often  beheld  —  a  respectable  mis- 
tress of  a  family  going  out  to  her  garden,  in  an  April 
morning,  with  her  great  calash,  her  little  painted  basket 
of  seeds,  and  her  rake  over  her  shoulders,  to  her  garden 
of  labours.  A  woman  in  very  easy  circumstances  and 
abundantly  gentle  in  form  and  manners  would  sow  and 
plant  and  rake  incessantly." 

In  New  York,  before  the  Revolution,  were  many 


44-0  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


Old  Garden,  Ellenviile,  New  York 


beautiful  gardens,  such  as  that  of  Madam  Alexander 
on  Broad  Street,  where  in  their  proper  season  grew 
"  paus  bloemen  of  all  hues,  laylocks  and  tall  May 
roses  and  snowballs  intermixed  with  choice  vege- 
tables and  herbs  all  bounded  and  hemmed  in  bv 
huge  rows  of  neatly  clipped  box  edgings."  We 
have  a  pretty  picture  also,  in  the  letters  of  Catha- 
rine Rutherfurd,  of  an  entire  company  gathering 
rose-leaves  in  June  in  Madam  Clark's  garden,  and 
setting  the  rose-still  at  work  to  turn  their  sweet- 
scented  spoils  into  rose-water. 

A  trade  in  flower  and  vegetable  seeds  formed  a 
lucrative  and  popular  means  by  which  women  could 
earn  a  livelihood  in  colonial  days.    I  have  seen  in 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens  441 


one  of  the  dingy  little  newspaper  sheets  of  those 
days,  in  the  large  total  of  nine  advertisements,  con- 
tained therein,  the  announcements,  by  five  Boston 
seedswomen,  of  lists  of  their  wares. 

The  earliest  list  of  names  of  flower-seeds  which 
I  have  chanced  to  note  was  in  the  Boston  Evening 
Post  of  March,  1760,  and  is  of  much  interest  as 
showing  to  us  with  exactness  the  flowers  beloved 
and  sought  for  at  that  time.  They  were  "holly- 
hook,  purple  Stock,  white  Lewpins,  Africans,  blew 
Lewpins,  candy-tuff,  cyanus,  pink,  wall-flower,  double 
larkin-spur,  venus  navelwort,  brompton  flock,  prin- 
cess feather,  balsam,  sweet-scented  pease,  carnation, 
sweet  williams,  annual  stock,  sweet  feabus,  yellow 
lewpins,  sunflower,  convolus  minor,  catch-fly,  ten 
week  stock,  globe  thistle,  globe  amaranthus,  nigella, 
love-lies-bleeding,  casent  hamen,  polianthus,  canter- 
bury bells,  carnation  poppy,  india  pink,  convolus 
major,  Queen  Margrets."  This  is  certainly  a  very 
pretty  list  of  flowers,  nearly  all  of  which  are  still 
loved,  though  sometimes  under  other  names  —  thus 
the  Queen  Margrets  are  our  asters.  And  the 
homely  old  English  names  seem  to  bring  the 
flowers  to  our  very  sight,  for  we  do  not  seem  to  be 
on  very  friendly  intimacy,  on  very  sociable  terms 
with  flowers,  unless  they  have  what  Miss  Mitford 
calls  "  decent,  well-wearing  English  names " ;  we 


442  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


can  have  no  flower  memories,  no  affections  that 
cling  to  botanical  nomenclature.  Yet  nothing  is 
more  fatal  to  an  exact  flower  knowledge,  to  an 
acquaintance  that  shall  ever  be  more  than  local,  than 
a  too  confident  dependence  on  the  folk-names  of 
flowers.  Our  bachelor's-buttons  are  ragged  sailors 
in  a  neighboring  state ;  they  are  corn-pinks  in  Ply- 
mouth, ragged  ladies  in  another  town,  blue  bottles 
in  England,  but  cyanus  everywhere.  Ragged  robin 
is,  in  the  garden  of  one  friend,  a  pink,  in  another 
it  flaunts  as  London-pride,  while  the  true  glowing 
London-pride  has  half  a  dozen  pseudonyms  in  as 
many  different  localities,  and  only  really  recognizes 
itself  in  the  botany.  An  American  cowslip  is  not 
an  English  cowslip,  an  American  primrose  is  no 
English  primrose,  and  the  English  daisy  is  no 
country  friend  of  ours  in  America. 

What  cheerful  and  appropriate  furnishings  the 
old-time  gardens  had;  benches  full  of  straw  bee- 
skepes  and  wooden  beehives,  those  homelike  and 
busy  dwelling-places;  frequently,  also,  a  well-filled 
dovecote.  Sometimes  was  seen  a  sun-dial  —  once 
the  every-day  friend  and  suggestive  monitor  of  all 
who  wandered  among  the  flowers  of  an  hour;  now 
known,  alas  !  only  to  the  antiquary.  Sentiment  and 
even  spirituality  seem  suggested  by  the  sun-dial,  yet 
few  remain  to  cast  their  instructive  shadow  before 
our  sight. 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


443 


One  stood  for  years  in  the  old  box-bordered 
garden  at  Homogansett  Farm,  at  Wickford,  in  old 
Narragansett.  Governor  Endicott's  dial  is  in  the 
Essex  Institute,  at  Salem;  and  my  forbear,  Jacob 
Fairbanks,  had  one  dated  1650,  which  is  now  in 
the  rooms  of  the  Dedham  Historical  Society.  Dr. 
Bowditch,  of  Boston,  had  a  sun-dial  which  was  thus 
inscribed:  — 

"  With  warning  hand  I  mark  Times  rapid  flight 
From  life's  glad  morning  to  its  solemn  night. 
And  like  God's  love  I  also  show 
Theres  light  above  me,  by  the  shade  below." 

Another  garden  dial  thus  gives,  "  in  long,  lean 
letters/'  its  warning  word  :  — 

"  You'll  mend  your  Ways  To-morrow 

When  blooms  that  budded  Flour  ? 

Mortall !    Lern  to  your  Sorrow 

Death  may  creep  with  his  Arrow 

And  pierce  yo'r  vitall  Marrow 

Long  ere  my  warning  Shadow 
Can  mark  that  Hour." 

These  dials  are  all  of  heavy  metal,  usually  lead; 
sometimes  with  gnomon  of  brass.  But  I  have  heard 
of  one  which  was  unique ;  it  was  cut  in  box. 

At  the  edge  of  the  farm  garden  often  stood  the 
well-sweep,  one  of  the  most  picturesque  adjuncts  of 


444 


Home  life  in  Colonial  Days 


the  country  dooryard.  Its  successor,  the  roofed 
well  with  bucket,  stone,  and  chain,  and  even  the 
homely  long-handled  pump,  had  a  certain  appro- 
priateness as  part  of  the  garden  furnishings. 


Old  Well-sweep 


So  many  thoughts  crowd  upon  us  in  regard  to 
the  old  garden  ;  one  is  the  age  of  its  flowers.  We 
have  no  older  inhabitants  than  these  garden  plants  ; 
they  are  old  settlers.    Clumps  of  flower-de-luce, 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


445 


double  buttercups,  peonies,  yellow  day-lilies,  are 
certainly  seventy-five  years  old.  Many  lilac  bushes 
a  century  old  still  bloom  in  New  England,  and 
syringas  and  flowering  currants  are  as  old  as  the 
elms  and  locusts  that  shade  them. 

This  established  constancy  and  yearly  recurrence 
of  bloom  is  one  of  the  garden's  many  charms.  To 
those  who  have  known  and  loved  an  old  garden  in 
which, 

u  There  grow  no  strange  flowers  every  year, 

But  when  spring  winds  blow  o'er  the  pleasant  places, 
The  same  dear  things  lift  up  the  same  fair  faces," 

and  faithfully  tell  and  retell  the  story  of  the  chang- 
ing seasons  by  their  growth,  blossom,  and  decay, 
nothing  can  seem  more  artificial  than  the  modern 
show-beds  of  full-grown  plants  which  are  removed 
by  assiduous  gardeners  as  soon  as  they  have  flow- 
ered, to  be  replaced  by  others,  only  in  turn  to  bloom 
and  disappear.  These  seem  to  form  a  real  garden 
no  more  than  does  a  child's  posy-bed  stuck  with 
short-stemmed  flowers  to  wither  in  a  morning. 

And  the  tiresome,  tasteless  ribbon-beds  of  our 
day  were  preceded  in  earlier  centuries  by  figured 
beds  of  diverse-colored  earths  —  and  of  both  we  can 
say  with  Bacon,  "they  be  but  toys,  you  may  see  as 
good  sights  many  times  in  tarts." 


Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


The  promise  to  Noah,  "  while  the  earth  remaineth 
seed-time  and  harvest  shall  not  cease/'  when  heeded 
in  the  garden,  brings  various  interests.  The  seed- 
time, the  springing-up  of  familiar  favorites,  and  the 
cherishing  of  these  favorites  through  their  in-gath- 
ering of  seeds  or  bulbs  or  roots  for  another  year, 
bring  pleasure  as  much  as  does  their  inflorescence. 

Another  pathetic  trait  of  many  of  the  old-time 
flowers  should  not  be  overlooked — their  persistent 
clinging  to  life  after  they  had  been  exiled  from  the 
trim  garden  borders  where  they  first  saw  the  chill 
sun  of  a  New  England  spring.  You  see  them 
growing  and  blooming  outside  the  garden  fence, 
against  old  stone  walls,  where  their  up-torn  roots 
have  been  thrown  to  make  places  for  new  and  more 
popular  favorites.  You  find  them  cheerfully  spread- 
ing, pushing  along  the  foot-paths,  turning  into  va- 
grants, becoming  flaunting  weeds.  You  see  them 
climbing  here  and  there,  trying  to  hide  the  deserted 
chimneys  of  their  early  homes,  or  wandering  over 
and  hiding  the  untrodden  foot-paths  of  other  days. 
A  vivid  imagination  can  shape  many  a  story  of  their 
life  in  the  interval  between  their  first  careful  plant- 
ing in  colonial  gardens  and  their  neglected  exile 
to  highways  and  byways,  where  the  poor  bits  of 
depauperated  earth  can  grow  no  more  lucrative 
harvest. 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens  447 

The  sites  of  colonial  houses  which  are  now  de- 
stroyed, the  trend,  almost  the  exact  line  of  old 
roads,  can  be  traced  by  the  cheerful  faces  of  these 
garden-strays.  The  situation  of  old  Fort  Nassau, 
in  Pennsylvania,  so  long  a  matter  of  uncertainty, 
is  said  to  have  been  definitely  determined  by  the 
familiar  garden  flowers  found  growing  on  one  of 
these  disputed  sites.  It  is  a  tender  thought  that  this 
indelible  mark  is  left  upon  the  face  of  our  native 
land  through  the  affection  of  our  forbears  for  their 
gardens. 

The  botany  tells  us  that  bouncing-bet  has  "escaped 
from  cultivation"  —  she  has  been  thrust  out,  but 
unresentfully  lives  and  smiles;  opening  her  tender 
pinky-opalescent  flowers  adown  the  dusty  roadsides, 
and  even  on  barren  gravel-beds  in   railroad  cuts. 
Butter-and-eggs,  tansy,  chamomile,  spiked  loose- 
strife, velvet-leaf,  bladder-campion,  cypress  spurge, 
live-for-ever,  star  of  Bethlehem,  money-vine, — all 
have  seen  better  days,  but  now  are  flower-tramps. 
Even  the  larkspur,  beloved  of  children,  the  moss- 
pink,  and  the  grape-hyacinth  may  sometimes  be  seen 
growing  in  country  fields  and  byways.    The  homely 
and  cheerful  blossoms  of  the  orange-tawny  ephem- 
eral lily,  and  the  spotted   tiger-lily,  whose  gaudy 
colors  glow  with  the  warmth  of  far  Cathay  —  their 
early  home  — now  make  gay  many  of  our  roadsides 


448  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


and  crowd  upon  the  sweet  cinnamon  roses  of  our 
grandmothers,  which  also  are  undaunted  garden 
exiles. 

Driving  once  along  a  country  road,  I  saw  on  the 
edge  of  a  field  an  expanse  of  yellow  bloom  which 
seemed  to  be  an  unfamiliar  field-tint.  It  proved  to 
be  a  vast  bed  of  coreopsis,  self-sown  from  year  to 
year ;  and  the  blackened  outlines  of  an  old  cellar 
wall  in  its  midst  showed  that  in  that  field  once  stood 
a  home,  once  there  a  garden  smiled. 

I  am  always  sure  when  I  see  bouncing-bet,  butter- 
and-eggs,  and  tawny  lilies  growing  in  a  tangle 
together  that  in  their  midst  may  be  found  an  un- 
trodden door-stone,  a  fallen  chimney,  or  a  filled-in 
well. 

Still  broader  field  expanses  are  filled  with  old- 
country  plants.  In  June  a  golden  glory  of  bud  and 
blossom  covers  the  hills  and  fields  of  Essex  County 
in  Massachusetts  from  Lynn  to  Danvers,  and  Ryal 
Side  to  Beverly  ;  it  is  the  English  gorse  or  woad- 
wax,  and  by  tradition  it  was  first  brought  to  this 
country  in  spray  and  seed  as  a  packing  for  some  of 
the  household  belongings  of  Governor  Endicott. 
Thrown  out  in  friendly  soil,  the  seeds  took  root  and 
there  remain  in  the  vicinity  of  their  first  American 
homes.  It  is  a  stubborn  squatter,  yielding  only  to 
scythe,  plough,  and  hoe  combined. 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


449 


Chicory  or  blue  weed  was,  it  is  said,  brought  from 
England  by  Governor  Bow- 
doin  as  food  for  his  sheep. 
It  has  spread  till  its  extended 
presence  has  been  a  startling 
surprise  to  all  English  visit- 
ing botanists.     It  hurts  no 
one's    fields,  for  it  invades 
chiefly  waste  and  neglected 
land  —  the   <c  dear  common 
flower"  —  and    it    has  re- 
deemed many  a  city  sub- 
urb of  vacant  lots,  many  a 
railroad  ash  heap  from  the 
abomination  of  desolation. 

Whiteweed  or 
ox-eye  daisy,  a  far 
greater  pest  than 
gorse  or  chicory, 
has  been  carried 
intentionally  to 
many  a  township 
by  homesick  set- 
tlers whose  de- 
scendants to-day 
rue  the  sentiment 
of  their  ancestors. 


Fraxinella 


2  G 


450  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 


While  the  vallied  garden  of  our  old  neighbors 
was  sweet  with  blossoms,  my  mother's  garden  bore 
a  still  fresher  fragrance  —  that  of  green  growing 
things;  of  "posies,"  lemon-balm,  rose  geranium, 
mint,  and  sage.  I  always  associate  with  it  in  spring 
the  scent  of  the  strawberry  bush,  or  calycanthus, 
and  in  summer  of  the  fraxinella,  which,  with  its  tall 
stem  of  larkspur-like  flowers,  its  still  more  graceful 
seed-vessels  and  its  shining  ash-like  leaves,  grew 
there  in  rich  profusion  and  gave  forth  from  leaf, 
stem,  blossom,  and  seed  a  pure,  a  memory-sweet 
perfume  half  like  lavender,  half  like  anise. 

Truly,  much  of  our  tenderest  love  of  flowers 
comes  from  association,  and  many  are  lovingly 
recalled  solely  by  their  odors.  Balmier  breath  than 
was  ever  borne  by  blossom  is  to  me  the  pure  pun- 
gent perfume  of  ambrosia,  rightly  named,  as  fit  for 
the  gods.  Not  the  miserable  weed  ambrosia  of  the 
botany,  but  a  lowly  herb  that  grew  throughout  the 
entire  summer  everywhere  in  "  our  garden  "  ;  sow- 
ing its  seeds  broadcast  from  year  to  year ;  springing 
up  unchecked  in  every  unoccupied  corner,  and 
under  every  shrub  and  bushy  plant;  giving  out 
from  serrated  leaf  and  irregular  raceme  of  tiny 
pale-green  flowers,  a  spicy  aromatic  fragrance  if  we 
brushed  past  it,  or  pulled  a  weed  from  amongst  it 
as  we  strolled  down  the  garden  walk.    And  it  is 


Old-time  Flower  Gardens 


45i 


our  very  own  —  I  have  never  seen  it  elsewhere 
than  at  my  old  home,  and  in  the  gardens  of  neigh- 
bors to  whom  its  seeds  were  given  by  the  gentle 
hand  that  planted  "our  garden "  and  made  it  a 
delight.  Goethe  says,  "  Some  flowers  are  lovely  to 
the  eye,  but  others  are  lovely  to  the  heart."  Am- 
brosia is  lovely  to  my  heart,  for  it  was  my  mother's 
favorite. 

And  as  each  "  spring  comes  slowly  up  the  way," 
I  say  in  the  words  of  Solomon,  "  Awake,  O  north 
wind ;  and  come,  thou  south  ;  blow  upon  my  gar- 
den, that  the  spices  thereof  may  flow  out"  —  that 
the  balm  and  mint,  the  thyme  and  southernwood, 
the  sweetbrier  and  ambrosia,  may  spring  afresh  and 
shed  their  tender  incense  to  the  memory  of  my 
mother,  who  planted  them  and  loved  their  pure 
fragrance,  and  at  whose  presence,  as  at  that  of  Eve, 
flowers  ever  sprung  — 

"And  touched  by  her  fair  tendance  gladlier  grew." 


Index 


Abington,  church  vote  in,  286. 
Acrelius,  Dr.,  quoted,  146. 
Adams,  Abigail,  garden  of,  435. 
Adams,  John,  quoted,  71,  160;  Sunday 

dinner  of,  159-160;  cider-drinking 

of,  161. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  Mrs.,  straw  bon- 
net of,  261. 

Adams  family,  homes  of,  22. 

Albany,  houses  at,  9 ;  deer  in,  109 ; 
beer  at,  161 ;  bad  boys  in,  374-375 ; 
first  church  in,  385;  cowherding  in, 

399- 
Alchymy,  88. 

Alewives,  in  New  England  waters,  120. 
Ambrosia,  a  flower,  450. 
Ames,  quoted,  136. 
Amherst,  sign-board  at,  360. 
Andirons,  62. 

Andover,  church  vote  in,  286;  bad 

boy  in,  373. 
Annapolis,  dress  in,  293. 
Apostle  spoons,  90. 

Apples,  culture  of,  145;  plenty  in 
Maryland,  145;  modes  of  cooking, 
146 ;  in  pies,  146. 

Apple-butter,  146-147. 

Apple-paring,  146-147. 

Apple-sauce,  146-147. 

Architecture,  of  churches,  364  et  seq. ; 
385  et  seq. 

Arkamy,  88. 

Axe-helves,  314-315. 

Back-bar  of  fireplace,  description,  53. 

Bacon,  quoted,  431. 

Bagging,  from  coarse  flax,  172. 


Bake-kettle,  66. 

Bake-shops,  147. 

Ballots,  of  corn  and  beans,  141. 

Balsam,  as  dye,  194. 

Baltimore,  dress  in,  293;  taverns  in, 

359- 
Banyan,  294. 

Barberry,  root  as  dye,  194. 
Basins,  106. 

Bass,  in  New  England  waters,  120-121. 

Bass-viols,  in  meeting,  378. 

Bates  of  flax,  169. 

Batteau,  329. 

Batten,  of  loom,  220-221. 

Baxter,  187. 

Bayberry,  description,  39;  candles  of, 
39 ;  wax  of,  40 ;  laws  about,  40 ;  soap 
from,  255. 

Bead  bags,  263. 

Beam.    See  Warp-beam. 

Beaming,  in  weaving,  218. 

Beans,  as  ballots,  141 ;  mode  of  cook- 
ing. 145- 

Bed  coverlet.    See  Coverlet. 

Bedstead,  alcove,  55 ;  turn-up,  55-56. 

Beer,  among  Dutch,  161. 

Bees,  called  English  flies,  111. 

Beehives,  442. 

Beetling  of  flax,  172. 

Bell,  as  summons  to  meeting,  368. 

Belt-loom.    See  Tape-loom. 

Bennet,  quoted,  123. 

Berkeley,  Gov.,  quoted,  111,  360-361. 

Berries,  145. 

Betty  lamps,  43-44. 

Beverages.    See  Drinks. 

Bible,  references  to  flax  in,  177. 


453 


454 


Index 


Biddeford,  communal  privileges  in,  390. 

Bier,  in  weaving,  220. 

Birch-bark,  doors  of,  6 ;  plates  of,  83 ; 
baskets  of,  cans  of,  253,  310. 

Birch  broom,  making  of,  301-303  ;  price 
of,  302. 

Blackjacks,  95-96. 

Blazing,  of  trees,  330. 

Bleaching,  of  flax  thread,  175  ;  of  linen, 
234;  of  straw  bonnets,  261. 

Bleeding-basins,  86. 

Block-houses,  26. 

Boards,  scarcity  of,  76. 

Board  cloth,  76-77. 

Boardman  Hill  House,  22. 

Bobbins,  for  weaving.    See  Quills. 

Bobs,  of  flax,  168. 

Bombards,  96. 

Books  of  etiquette,  79. 

Bore-staff  of  loom,  224. 

Boston,  fire-engine  in,  19 ;  early  houses 
of,  19,  27 ;  first  fork  in,  77 ;  pigeons 
in,  110;  fish  in,  123  ;  tea  in,  164-165  ; 
coffee  in,  165 ;  chocolate  in,  165 ; 
spinning  schools  in,  180;  fulling- 
mill  in,  187;  dress  in,  292-294; 
coach  in,  331;  stage-travel  from, 
350-351;  night  watch  in,  363  ;  meet- 
ing-houses in,  364,  366;  restrictions 
of  settlement  in,  394 ;  cows  in,  400. 

Bottles,  of  wood,  82;  of  pewter,  85;  of 
glass,  92-93  ;  of  leather,  95. 

Boucher,  Jonathan,  quoted,  382. 

Bouncing-bet,  427,  447. 

Bounty  coats,  248. 

Bouts,  in  weaving,  218. 

Box-borders,  a  plea  for,  430-431. 

Boxing,  of  maple  trees,  112. 

Boylston,  Nicholas,  banyan  of,  294. 

Boys,  clothing  of,  287-288 ;  wigs  of, 
297 ;  seats  in  meeting  for,  372  et  seq.; 
misbehavior  of,  372-373;  in  church, 
384. 

Braid-loom.    See  Tape-loom. 
Bradford,  Governor,  quoted,  129-130. 
Bread,  white,  147  ;  rye  and  Indian,  147. 


Bread-peel,  67. 
Breadtrough,  311. 
Breakfast,  or  bread  and  milk,  148. 
Breaking,  of  flax,  169-170;  of  hemp, 
170. 

Breaking  out  the  winter  roads,  412 
et  seq. 

Breweries,  in  New  York,  161. 

Brewster,  Elder,  quoted,  117. 

Brick,  imported,  21. 

British  spinning  and  weaving  school, 

186. 
Broach, 198. 

Brooklyn,  oysters  in,  118-119;  salting 
shad  in,  124-125. 

Brooms,  of  broom-corn,  256-257 ;  of 
birch,  301-304 ;  of  hemlock,  304-305. 

Broom-corn,  256-257. 

Brown  University,  dress  of  first  gradu- 
ating class,  183. 

Bucking,  of  flax  thread,  175 ;  of  linen, 
234- 

Bull's-eye  lamp,  45. 
Bun,  of  flax,  169. 
Bunch-thread,  251. 

Bundling-mould.  See  Shingling-mould. 
Burlers,  in  weaving,  252. 
Bushnell,  Horace,  quoted,  246. 
Busks,  carved,  320. 
Butter,  price  of,  149. 
Buttermilk,  for  bleaching,  175. 

Caches,  for  corn,  138. 

Cage,  for  babies,  372 ;  for  bad  boys, 

385. 
Calash,  289. 

Calf-keeper,  duties  of,  400. 
Cambridge,  cowherding  in,  399. 
Campbell,  Madam  Angelica,  coach  of, 

335- 

Candles,  cost  of,  34 ;  making  of,  35-37  ; 

materials  for,  38-39,  42. 
Candle-arms,  42. 
Candle-beams,  42. 
Candle-box,  38. 
Candle-dipping,  36. 


Index  455 


Candle-moulds,  36-37. 

Candle-prongs,  42. 

Candle-rods,  36. 

Candle-sticks,  42. 

Candle-wood,  32. 

Canoes,  325-327. 

Canteens,  of  horn,  321. 

Captain  of  the  watch,  duties  of,  380. 

Cards.    See  Wool-cards. 

Carding  described,  194-196. 

Carding-machines,  206. 

Card-setting.    See  Wool-cards. 

Capuchins,  295. 

Carolinas,   sweet    potatoes    in,  145; 

hand-weaving  in,  249-251 ;  gardens 

in,  438-439. 
Carpet.    See  Rag-carpet. 
Carrots,  145. 

Carving,  terms  in,  104-105 ;  of  wood, 

320;  of  horn,  321-322. 
Caves,  description  of,  2;  for  corn,  138. 
Cave-dwellers,  1. 
Cedar  tops,  for  dyeing,  251. 
Cellar  of  Dutch  houses,  10. 
Chain  in  weaving,  250. 
Chair-seats,  310-311. 
Chaise  of  Brother  Jonathan,  353. 
"Change-work,"  417. 
Chap-men,  300. 
Chargers,  80,  84. 

Charleston,  flax  manufacture  in,  182- 
183;  dress  in,  293;  gardens  in,  438- 

439- 

Charlevoix,  Father,  on  canoes,  327. 

Chaucer,  quoted,  on  spinning,  179. 

Chebobbin,  415. 

Cheese,  making  of,  150. 

Cheese-basket,  150-151. 

Cheese-hoop,  312. 

Cheese-ladder,  150-151,  312. 

Cheese-press,  150-151,  312. 

Chesapeake,  turkeys  on,  109;  wild 
fowl  on,  125. 

Chicory,  introduction  of,  449. 

Children,  at  table,  101-102;  occupa- 
tions of,  179-180,  182,  188-189,  203- 


204,  261-262 ;  dress  of,  287 ;  in 
meeting,  372  et  seq.  ;  in  noon-house, 
376. 

Chimney,  catted,  15,  53 ;  size  of,  52, 
68  ;  description,  53  ;  in  Dutch 
houses,  55. 

China,  early  use  of,  100;  importation 
of,  100-10 1. 

Chinese  stuffs,  294. 

Chinking  walls,  5. 

Chopping-bee,  403  et  seq. 

Chorister,  in  Dutch  churches,  386. 

Churches,  in  Virginia,  381-383 ;  in  Al- 
bany, 385.    See  also  Meeting-house. 

Churns,  few  in  New  England,  149 ; 
examples  of,  149-150;  whittling  of, 
312. 

Cider,  use  by  children,  148-149,  161 ; 

use  by  students,  161 ;  price  of,  161 ; 

manufacture  of,  161-162;  generous 

use  of,  161-163. 
Clam-shells,  use  of,  308-309. 
Clarionets,  in  meeting,  378. 
Clavell-piece,  54. 
Clay,  for  dyeing,  241. 
Clergymen,  in  Virginia,  384. 
Clocks,  299. 
Clock-jack,  65. 

Clock-reel,  174-175;  price  of,  177;  for 

yarn,  200. 
Clogs,  295. 

Cloth,  finishing  of,  231-233. 
Cloth  bar,  224. 

Clothes,  durability  of,  281 ;  extrava- 
gance in,  281;  laws  about,  281  et 
seq.;  of  Massachusetts  settlers,  286- 
287 ;  of  Virginia  planters,  287 ;  of 
children,  288  et  seq. 

Coaches,  in  Boston,  331,  353-354;  in 
England,  354 ;  Judge  Sewall  on,  354 ; 
in  New  York,  354-355.  See  also 
Stage-coach. 

Coat-of-arms,  on  sampler,  267. 

Coat  roll,  248. 

Cob  irons,  62. 

Cocoanut-cups,  96-97. 


456 


Index 


.  Codfish,  early  discoverers  on,  115-116 ; 
plenty  of,  115;  in  New  England 
waters,  120-121 ;  varieties  of,  121; 
for  Saturday  dinner,  122;  price  in 
Boston,  123.  See  Fish  and  Fishing. 
Coffee,  substitutes  for,  159;  early  use 
of,  165 ;  queer  mode  of  cooking, 
165. 

Colchester,  girls'  life  in,  253. 
Cold  houses,  70-71. 
Cold  party,  419. 
Colored  herbs,  430. 
Coloring,  23. 

Combing,  description  of,  196. 
Combing  machine,  230. 
Combs.    See  Wool-combs. 
Comfortier,  69. 
Common  crops,  130. 
Common  herds.    See  Herding. 
Common  lands,  398. 
Communal  privileges,  390  et  seq. 
Conch-shell,  as  summons  to  meeting, 

367-368. 
Concord  coaches,  352-353. 
Concordance,  33. 

Conestoga  wagon,  339-343 ;  shape  of, 
339;  rates  on,  340;  great  number 
of,  340. 

Connecticut,  tar-making  in,  33 ;  pump- 
kin bread  in,  143;  flax  culture  in, 
179 ;  straw  manufacture  in,  260. 

Contributions  in  New  England  meet- 
ings, 378 ;  in  Dutch  churches,  386- 

387. 

Cooking,  influence  of  Indian  methods, 
131-136;  English  modes  of,  151; 
spices  used  in,  152;  limitations  in, 

I58-I59- 

Cooperation  in  olden  times,  389  et  seq. 
Corbel  roof,  9. 

Coreopsis,  persistence  of,  448. 

Corn,  influence  on  colonists'  lives,  126; 
in  Virginia,  127-128 ;  price  of,  128, 
138  ;  scarcity  of,  129  ;  mode  of  culti- 
vating, 130-131;  Indian  foods  from, 
131 ;    Indian  modes  of  preparing, 


131 ;  modes  of  cooking,  133-136;  as 
currency,  138  ;  profits  on  raising,  139; 
games  with,  139 ;  shelling  of,  139-140 ; 
as  ballots,  141 ;  as  national  flower, 
141. 

Corn-cobs,  use  of,  141,  209. 

Corn  dances,  138. 

Corn-husking,  description  of,  136. 

Corn-sheller,  140-141. 

Cotton,  early  use  of,  206-207  5  cultiva- 
tion of,  207 ;  rarity  of,  207-208 ;  do- 
mestic manufacture,  209-210 ;  Golden 
Age  of,  230. 

Cotton-gin,  208. 

Cotton,  John,  quoted,  148,  285. 

Coverlets,  in  Pennsylvania,  190 ;  in 
Narragansett,  242-246. 

Cows,  herding  of,  399-401. 

Cowherds,  duties  of,  399-400;  pay  of, 
399- 

Cowkeeps,  399. 
Cow-pens,  400. 
Crabs,  in  Virginia,  118. 
Crane,  53. 
Creepers,  62. 
Crocus,  237. 
Crofting,  of  linen,  234. 
Crown-imperial,  425. 
Cups,  85,  90,  93-96. 
Currency,  corn  as,  138. 
"  Cut-down,"  of  trees,  405. 
Cutler,  Dr.,  quoted,  159. 
Cut-tails,  122-123. 

Daffodils,  426-427. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  on  corn-growing, 

127 ;  on  Sunday  observance,  380. 
Danvers,  Mass.,  house  in,  30. 
Daubing  walls,  5. 
Daughters  of  Liberty,  183-184. 
Day's  work  in  spinning,  185. 
Deacons,  in  Dutch  churches,  386-387. 
Deacons'  pew,  374. 
"  Deaconing"  the  psalm,  378. 
Deaf  pew,  374. 

Dedham,  Mass.,  house  in,  22-23. 


Index 


457 


Deer,  abundance  of,  108-109 ;  descrip- 
tion of,  108. 

Deerskin,  clothing  of,  288-289. 

De  La  Warre,  church  attendance  of, 
382. 

Delaware,  house  pie  in,  146. 

Delft  ware,  100. 

Dents,  of  sley,  219-220. 

Designs,  for  weaving,  243-244,  250- 
251 ;  of  ancient  Gauls,  242 ;  for  quilts, 
272-273  ;  for  paper-cutting,  278-289. 

Dew-retting,  169. 

Dimity,  250. 

Dinner,  serving  of,  104 ;  primitive  forms, 
105-106 ;  for  Saturday,  122 ;  in  New 
York,  159 ;  at  John  Adams'  home, 
159-160. 

Discomforts  of  temperature,  70-71. 
Distaff,  in  India,  178. 
Dogs,  in  meeting,  374. 
Dog-pelter,  374. 
Dog-whipper,  374. 

Donnison  family,  fire  buckets  of,  18. 
Door  latch,  11,  318. 

Dorchester,  windmill  at,  133 ;  corpora- 
tion, laws  in,  392,  394. 
Double  string-roaster,  64. 
Drawing,  in  weaving,  219. 
Drawing  a  bore,  224. 
Dress.    See  Clothes. 
Dresser,  68. 

Drinking-cups,  85-96,  98. 

Drinks,  from  curious  materials,  163. 

Drinking  habits,  93-94,  161,  164. 

Drinking-horns,  321. 

Driver,  198. 

Drugget,  250. 

Drum,  as  summons  to  meeting,  367, 
368. 

Duck.    See  Wild  fowl. 
Duer,  Colonel,  dinner  of,  159. 
Dugouts,  326. 

Dunfish.  121— 122.    Also  see  Codfish. 
Durability  of  homespun,  238-239. 
Durham,  church  discipline  in,  372. 
Dutch  mode  of  serving  meals,  106. 


Dutch  oven,  65. 

Dyes,  domestic,  155,  193-194,250-251. 
Dye-flower,  251. 

Earmarks,  400. 

Eastern  Stage  Company,  351. 

Economy  of  colonists,  42, 185,  321-324 ; 

of  Martha  Washington,  237-238. 
Eddis,  quoted,  118. 
Eels,  method  of  catching,  117. 
Egypt,  flax  in,  177-178 ;  linen  in,  178. 
Embroidery.    See  Needlework. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  appointed  hog-reeve, 

403. 

Endicott,  Governor,  sun-dial  of,  443 ; 

his  introduction  of  woad-wax,  448. 
Entering,  in  weaving.    See  Drawing. 
Ernst,  C.  W.,  quoted,  343,  345. 
Etiquette  for  children,   100-102;  of 

carving,  104-105. 
Eye,  of  harness,  218. 

Fairbanks,  Jacob,  house  of,  22-23 ; 
sun-dial  of,  443. 

Fairs,  instituted  by  Penn,  190;  en- 
couraged by  Franklin,  191. 

Faneuil,  Miss,  dress  of,  292. 

Fences,  different  varieties  of,  25 ;  com- 
mon building  of,  401-402;  laws 
about,  401-402. 

Fence-viewers,  401. 

Ferries,  by  canoe,  330-331. 

Finlay,  Hugh,  postal  report  of,  333- 

335- 
Fireback,  54. 

Fire-buckets,  description,  16;  use  of, 
17;  of  Donnison's,  18;  of  Quincy's, 
18  ;  of  Oliver's,  19. 

Fire-dogs,  62. 

Fire-engine,  first  in  Boston,  19;  first  in 

Brooklyn,  19. 
Fire-hunting,  108-109. 
Fire  lanes,  16. 
Fire  laws,  15. 

Fireplace  of  our  fathers,  53. 
Fire-plate,  54-55. 


458 


Index 


Fire-room,  7. 
Fire-wardens,  15. 

Fish,  plenty  of,  1 15-125;  varieties  of, 
in  New  England  waters,  117;  in 
Virginia  waters,  119;  in  New  York 
waters,  120  ;  salted,  124-125  ;  as  fer- 
tilizer, 130 ;  poisoned  by  flax,  169. 

Fishing,  King  James  on,  116;  ill-suc- 
cess in,  117;  supplies  for,  117;  in 
Virginia,  1 19-120;  encouragement 
of,  121 ;  laws  on,  121 ;  division  of 
profit,  122,  123. 

Fish-weirs,  121. 

Flag,  as  summons  to  meeting,  368. 

Flails,  making  of,  312;  use  of,  313-314. 

Flannel  sheets,  238. 

Flax,  patch  of,  167 ;  blossom  of,  167 ; 
growth  of,  168 ;  weeding  of,  168 ; 
ripening  of,  168 ;  pulling  of,  168 ; 
spreading  of,  168 ;  rippling  of,  168- 
169;  watering  of,  169;  stacking  of, 
169;  breaking  of,  169-170;  tenacity 
of,  171;  swingling  of,  171-172;  beet- 
ling of,  172;  hetcheling  of,  172-173; 
spreading  and  drawing,  173;  many 
manipulations  of,  173 ;  spinning  of, 
174;  in  Bible,  177;  in  Egypt,  177- 
178;  in  New  England,  179-181,  186; 
in  Pennsylvania,  181;  in  Virginia, 
181,  182;  in  South  Carolina,  182- 
183;  in  Ireland,  186;  in  Courtrai, 
186;  in  England,  186. 

Flax  basket,  173. 

Flax-brake,  169-170. 

Flax  hetchels,  172. 

Flaxseed,  how  sown,  167;  how  gath- 
ered, 168,  176;  how  stored,  176. 

Flax-thread,  spinning  of,  174 ;  knot- 
ting of,  175 ;  reeling  of,  175  ;  bleach- 
ing of,  175;  backing  of,  175. 

Flax-wheel,  revival  of,  167 ;  use  of,  174 ; 
price  of,  177. 

Flint  and  steel,  48. 

Flower,  a  national,  141. 

Flowers,  in  churches,  383;  old-time, 
421  et  seq. ;  folk-names  of,  448 ;  age 


of,  443-445;    persistency  of,  447; 

escaped  from  cultivation,  448. 
Flower-seeds,  sold  by  women,  440- 

441 ;  old  list  of,  441. 
Flutes,  in  meeting,  378. 
Flying-machine,  345. 
Fly-shuttle,  228. 

Food,  from  forests,  108-114;  from  sea 
and  river,  1 14-125;  transportation 
of,  143;  entirely  from  farm,  158; 
substitutes,  158-159. 

Foot-mantle,  295. 

Foot-paths,  329. 

Foot-stoves,  375,  385. 

Foot-treadle,  of  loom,  219. 

Foot-wheel.    See  Flax-wheel. 

Foote,  Abigail,  diary  of,  253. 

Forefathers'  Dinner,  129. 

Forests,  destruction  of,  52;  riches  of, 
108-114. 

Forms,  101. 

Forks,  use  of,  77  ;  first,  77. 

Forts,  as  churches,  365,  385. 

Fox,  George,  bequest  of,  437. 

Franklin,  quoted,  53,  181 ;  fairs  en- 
couraged by,  191 ;  advertisement  of, 
292-293  ;  as  postmaster,  333  ;  set  mile- 
stones, 335  ;  cyclometer  of,  335-336 ; 
on  canals,  353 ;  in  sedan-chair,  356. 

Franklin  stove,  70. 

Fraxinella,  449. 

Fringe-loom,  227. 

Frocking,  striped,  237. 

Fulling-mill,  in  Boston,  188. 

Fulling-stocks,  232. 

Fulham  jugs,  98. 

Funerals,  rings  at,  298 ;  gloves  at,  298- 
299. 

Furs,  search  for,  115. 

Fustian,  in  America,  237;  in  Europe, 

237. 

Gallows-balke,  53. 
Gallows-crooks,  53. 
Gallows-frame.    See  Tape-loom. 
Gambrels,  310. 


Index 


459 


Gambrel  roof,  description,  22. 

Games,  with  corn,  139. 

Garden,  an  old-time,  419  et  seq.;  in 
New  England,  419  etseq.;  in  southern 
colonies,  438-439;  in  New  York, 
439-440. 

Garnish  of  pewter,  85. 

Garrison  house,  26. 

Garter-loom.    See  Tape-loom. 

Geese,  raising  of,  257-258  ;  pickings  of, 

2S7-259 ;  noise  of.  258. 

Georgia,  deer  in,  109;  turkeys  in,  110; 
hand-weaving  in,  249-251. 

Georgius  Rex  jug,  99. 

Germantown,  flax-raising  at,  181 ;  flax- 
workers  at,  181;  seal  of,  181;  wool 
manufacture  at,  190. 

Gibcrokes,  53. 

Gimlet,  305. 

Giotto,  loom  of,  213. 

Girdling,  of  trees,  403. 

Girls,  dress  of,  289-292;  seats  in  meet- 
ing for,  372. 

Giskins,  96. 

Glass,  in  windows,  23,  366 ;  nailed  in, 
366;  for  lamps,  46;  early  use  of,  92. 

Gloucester,  old  house  at,  70;  fishing 
at,  122-123;  communal  privileges 
in,  390. 

Gloves,  given  at  funerals,  298-299. 

Going  a-leafing,  67. 

Goldenrod,  as  dye,  193. 

Goloe-shoes,  295. 

Gookin,  quoted,  137. 

Goose-basket,  258. 

Goose-neck  andirons,  62. 

Goose  yoke,  258. 

Gorse.    See  Woad-wax. 

Gourds,  cups  of,  96;  utensils  of,  309. 

Grant,  Mrs.  Anne,  on  Dutch  gardens, 

439- 
Grapes,  145. 

Grassing,  of  linen,  234. 

Greeley,  Horace,  on  canal-travel,  353. 

Gridirons,  61. 

Grist-mill,  earliest,  133. 


Guinea  wheat,  129.    See  Corn. 
Gun,  as  summons  to  meeting,  368. 
Gundalow,  329. 
Gutters  of  houses,  9. 

Hackling.    See  Hetcheling. 

Hadley,  shad  in,  123-124;  potatoes  in, 
144;  broom-making  in,  256-257  ;  re- 
strictions of  settlement  in,  392-393 ; 
hay -ward  in,  402. 

Hakes,  53. 

Half-faced  camp,  3. 

Hammond,  John,  quoted,  395. 

Hamor,  Ralph,  quoted,  143. 

Hancock  House,  knocker  of,  28 ;  on 
sampler,  268. 

Hancock,  John,  hatred  of  pewter,  85 ; 
drinking  cup  of,  97  ;  dress  of,  293. 

Hand-distaff.    See  Distaff. 

Hand-loom.    See  Loom. 

Hand-reel.    See  Niddy-noddy. 

Hap-harlot,  242. 

Harness.    See  Heddle. 

Harvard  College,  standing  salt  of,  78- 
79;  trenchers  at,  81. 

Hasty  pudding,  135. 

Hats,  worn  in  meeting,  285 ;  church 
votes  about,  286. 

Hay-wards,  402. 

Heddle  of  loom,  219. 

Heddle-frame.    See  Tape-loom. 

Heel-pegs.    See  Shoe-pegs. 

Hemlock,  brooms  of,  304-305 ;  boxes 
of,  310. 

Hemp,  blossom  of,  167;  breaking  of, 
169. 

Herding,  of  cows,  399-401 ;  of  sheep, 

401 ;  or  swine,  403. 
Hetcheling  of  flax,  172. 
Hexe,  of  flax,  169. 
Hides,  use  of,  109 ;  tax  on,  109. 
Higginson,  quoted,  33,  35,  117,  148. 
Hind's-foot  handle,  90. 
Hinges,  material  of,  9,  318. 
Hingham,  church  at,  365. 
Hogarth,  loom  of,  213-214. 


460 


Index 


Hogs,  as  scavengers,  125 ;  yokes  of, 

311 ;  laws  about,  402-403. 
Hog-reeves,  402-403. 
Homespun  industries,  167  ;  beneficent 

effect  of,  179 ;  foundation  of  liberty, 

189. 
Hominy,  131. 
Honey,  plenty  of,  ill. 
Honey-locust,  163. 

Horn,  spoons  of,  88;  cups  of,  96;  as 

summons  to  meeting,  368. 
Horse-blocks,  in  front  of  churches,  367. 
Horse-bridges,  331. 
Horse-laurel,  as  dye,  194. 
Hose.    See  Stockings. 
Hospitality,  in  Southern  colonies,  395 

et  seq. 
Hound  handle,  100. 
Hour-glass,  in  meeting,  376. 
Housekeeper,  qualifications  of,  252- 

253- 

House  pie,  146. 
House-raising.    See  Raising. 
Hyperion  tea,  165. 

India  china,  100. 

Indians,  houses  of,  3-4;  caves  of,  138  ; 
corn  dances  of,  138 ;  cultivation  of 
corn  by,  126-131;  endurance  of, 
137 ;  mode  of  cooking  corn,  131- 
135 ;  names  of  corn  foods,  131- 
137  ;  mode  of  drying  pumpkins,  143  ; 
spoons  of,  88 ;  mode  of  cooking 
beans,  145 ;  brooms  of,  301-304 ; 
four  best  things,  304 ;  modes  of 
travel  of,  325  ;  boats  of,  325 ;  paths 

of>  329-330- 
Indian  corn.    See  Corn. 

Indian  pudding,  135. 

Indigo,  as  dye,  193. 

Inns.    See  Taverns. 

Invention,  of  cotton-gin,  208;  of  fly- 
shuttle,  228;  of  spinning-jenny,  229; 
of  throstle-spun  yarn,  229  ;  of  comb- 
ing-machine,  230 ;  of  flax-spinning 
machine,  230-231. 


Ipswich,  grist-mill  at,  133. 
Iris,  as  dye,  193. 

Itineracies,  old-time,  176,  300-301. 

Jack-knife,  307-308. 
Jacks,  64. 

James  I.  on  fishing,  116. 

Jamestown,  spinning-schools  at,  182; 

summons  to  meeting  at,  367. 
Jeans,  250. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  quoted,  207,  256 ; 
hospitality  of,  397;  impoverishment 

of,  397-398. 
Jewellery,  slight  wear  of,  297. 
Johnson,  quoted,  143,  145,  188. 
Johnson,  Governor,  baby  clothes  of, 

265. 

Johnny-cakes,  135. 

Josselyn,  quoted,  117;  his  list  of  plants 

in  New  England,  432  et  seq. 
Judd,  Sylvester,  quoted,  216,  237. 
Jugs,  of  stoneware,  98. 
Jumel,  Madame,  cave  house  of,  3. 

Kalm,  quoted,  39-40;  on  squirrels, 
110;  on  bees,  111;  on  maize  bread, 
134 ;  on  canoes,  326-327 ;  on  the 
plantain,  436. 

Kearsarge,  Mount,  romance  of,  405. 

Kentucky,  hand-weaving  in,  249. 

Ketch,  328. 

Kill-devil.    See  Rum. 

Killing  time,  153. 

King  Hooper  house,  30. 

Kitchen,  description,  52;   in  rhyme, 

73-75- 
Knife.    See  Jack-knife. 

Knife-racks,  68. 

Knights,  Madame,  quoted,  8 ;  on 
canoes,  327-328;  journey  of,  332; 
on  sleighs,  355. 

Knitting,  190 ;  yarn  for,  201 ;  by  chil- 
dren, 261-262;  elaborate  designs, 
262. 

Knitting  machine,  190. 
Knives,  of  flax  brake,  170. 


Index 


461 


Knocker,  Hancock  house,  28 ;  Wins- 
low  house,  29. 
Knots,  of  flax  thread,  175. 
Krankbesoeckers,  385. 

Labadist  missionaries,  quoted,  118- 
119. 

Lad's  lore,  428. 
Lamps,  43-45. 
Lathe.    See  Batten. 
Latten  ware,  58. 

Laws,  about  flax  culture,  179-180; 
about  dress,  282-284 1  about  ferries, 
330-331;  about  mail,  334;  about 
taverns,  357 ;  on  observance  of  Sun- 
day, 378-379  ;  of  warning  out,  392  et 
seq.  ;  about  fences,  401-402. 

Lay,  of  loom.    See  Batten. 

Laying  a  fire,  74. 

Lays,  of  flax  thread,  175. 

Lean-to,  description,  22. 

Leashes,  of  heddle,  219. 

Leather,  utensils  of,  95-96. 

Letters.    See  Post. 

Liberty  Tea,  165. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  early  home  of,  4; 

rail-splitting,  25. 
Linden,  fibre  from,  211. 
Linen,  manipulations  of,  234;  clothing 

of,  234;  sentiment  of,  234;  price  of, 

234;  checked,  238. 
Lining  the  psalm,  378. 
Litster,  187. 

Livingstone,  John,  clothing  of,  288. 
Loaf-sugar.    See  Sugar-cones. 
Lobsters,  plenty  of,  117;  vast  size  of, 
118. 

Logan,  Mrs.,  on  flower-raising,  438. 

Log  cabin,  forms  of,  5. 

Logging-bee,  416,  417. 

Log-rolling,  389,  404,  406. 

Longfellow,  quoted,  327. 

Long  Island,  bayberries  on,  40;  samp- 
mortars  on,  133;  wool  raising  on, 
191  ;  bad  boys  on,  373 ;  Sunday  ob- 
servance on,  385;  cowherding  on,  400. 


Long-short,  236-237. 

Loom,  antiquity  of,  213-214;  of  Giotto, 
213 ;  of  Hogarth,  213-214 ;  descrip- 
tion of,  214.  See  Power-loom,  Tape- 
loom. 

Loom-room,  212. 

Louisiana,  corn  in,  128 ;  petticoat  re- 
bellion in,  128;  hand-weaving  in, 
250. 

Lowell,  quoted,  73. 

Lucas,  Governor,  quoted,  182-183. 

Lug-pole,  53. 

Luxury,  after  the  Revolution,  159-160. 
Lye,  making. of,  254. 

MacMaster,  quoted,  207. 
Madison,  Dolly,  dress  of,  290. 
Mail,  of  heddle,  219. 
Mail.    See  Post. 
Mail  coaches,  344,  350. 
Maine,  windows  in,  23 ;  candle-wood 
in,  32;  churns  in,  149;  axe-making 

in,  315- 
Maize.    See  Corn. 
Mandillion,  287. 

Manhattan,  bark  houses  on,  4 ;  pali- 

sados  on,  24. 
Manners.    See  Etiquette. 
Maple  sugar,  old  description  of,  11 1; 

manufacture  of,  111-112. 
Maple-wood,  bowls  of,  82,  318-320. 
Marblehead,  fishing  at,  122-123. 
Marigolds,  427. 
Marmalades,  152. 

Maryland,  houses  in,  11 ;  wild  fowl  in, 
125  ;  apples  in,  145 ;  hospitality  in, 
396-397. 

Masks,  290. 

Massachusetts,  cave  dwellings  in,  1 ; 

palisados  in,  24 ;   venison  in,  109 ; 

fish  in,  123  ;  flax  culture  in,  179-180; 

wool-raising  in,  188;  bounty  in,  205; 

sumptuary  laws  in,  281-284  ;  outfit  for 

settlers,  286-287  ;  ferries  in,  330-331. 
Matches,  first,  50-51. 
Mazer,  319. 


462 


Index 


Mead,  163. 

Meeting-house,  in  Boston,  364,  366 ;  in 
Salem,  364;  in  Hingham,  365;  de- 
scriptions of,  364,  366-369. 

Metheglin,  163. 

Metheglin  cups,  85. 

Metzel-soup,  419. 

Milestones,  335-336. 

Milford,  Conn.,  palisados  in,  24. 

Milk,  price  of,  148 ;  use  as  food,  148. 

Milk  pitchers,  names  of,  106. 

Milkweed,  for  candle  wicks,  35,  211. 

Mill,  Indian,  132. 

Mince-pies,  pioneer,  159. 

Ministers,  encourage  fisheries,  121. 

Mittens,  fine  knitting  of,  262;  quick 
knitting  of,  262. 

Modesty-piece,  270-271. 

Molasses,  for  New  England  slave- 
trade,  163. 

Monkey  spoons,  90. 

Moore,  Thomas,  quoted,  348. 

Mortar,  Indian,  132. 

Morton,  quoted,  120-121. 

Moss-pink,  423. 

Mount  Vernon,  description  of,  13; 
weaving  at,  237;  garden  at,  431. 

Mourning  rings.    See  Rings. 

Mourning  samplers,  268-269. 

Muffs,  worn  by  men,  298,  386. 

Mutton,  its  disuse  previous  to  Revolu- 
tion, 189,  191. 

Nails,  scarcity  of,  11. 

Napkins,  use  of,  77. 

Narragansett,  hand-weaving  in,  241- 

244 ;   shift  marriages   in,  241-242 ; 

old  quilt  in,  275-276;  threshing  in, 

313-314. 

Needlework,  stitches  in,  264-265  ;  deli- 
cacy of,  265  ;  rules  for,  265. 

Neighborhood,  title  of  settlement,  391. 

Neighbors,  old-time,  388  et  seq.,  395  et 
seq. 

Netting,  263-264. 
Nettles,  fibre  spun,  211. 


New  Amsterdam,  first  church  in,  385  ; 

laws  about  fences  in,  401-402. 
Newman,  Rev.  Mr.,  manner  of  work, 

33- 

Newburyport,  house  at,  27 ;  straw 
bleaching  at,  261 ;  sumptuary  laws 
in,  283  ;  fines  in,  374. 

New  England,  houses  in,  15 ;  candle- 
wood  in,  32;  lobsters  in,  117;  fish- 
eries in,  117-124;  Indian  corn  in, 
127-136;  mills  in,  131-133;  pump- 
kins in,  142-143;  potatoes  in,  144; 
squashes  in,  144;  milk  and  ministers 
in,  148;  churns  in,  149;  cider  in, 
161-162;  rum  in,  163-164;  slavery 
in,  164;  wool-raising  in,  188-189; 
taverns  in,  356-357;  watchmen  in, 
363;  meeting-houses  in,  365  et  seq.; 

.  summons  to  meeting  in,  368  ;  Sunday 
observance  in,  378  et  seq.;  "taste  of 
dinner  in,"  418  ;  old-time  gardens  in, 
421  et  seq. 

New  Hampshire,  candle-wood  in,  32; 
potatoes  in,  144;  pioneer  mince-pies 
in,  159;  wheelwrights  in,  176;  flax 
manufacture  in,  180,  236 ;  fine  knit- 
ting in,  269;  birch  brooms  in,  304. 

New  Haven,  restrictions  in,  392. 

New  London,  mill  at,  133. 

Newport,  box  plants  at,  430;  garden 
in,  437-438. 

New  York,  houses  in,  8;  candle-wood 
in,  32;  first  fork  in,  78;  venison  in, 
109;  lobsters  at,  118;  fish  in,  120; 
salting  shad  in,  124-125 ;  suppawn 
in,  133;  ale  and  beer  in,  161;  wool- 
raising  in,  191;  dress  in,  292;  turn- 
pikes in,  349-350;  coaches  in,  354- 
355;  sleighs  in,  355;  street  lighting 
in,  362;  watch  in,  363;  Sunday  ob- 
servance in,  384;  cow-herding  in, 
399;  gardens  in,  439-440. 

Niddy-noddy,  200-201 ;  carved,  320. 

Nightgowns,  294. 

Nocake,  description  of,  137;  use  of, 
137  ;  Eliot's  use  of  word,  137-138. 


Index 


463 


Noggins,  82. 
Noil,  196. 

Nokick.  See  Nocake. 
Noon-houses,  374-375. 
Noon-marks,  299. 

Norridgewock,  life-work  of  a  citizen  of, 
407-408. 

Northampton,  sumptuary  laws  in,  283- 
284. 

Northboro,  spinning  match  at,  184. 
North  Saugus,  house  in,  21. 
Norwich,  naughty  girl  in,  373. 
Notices,  nailed  on  church  doors,  367. 
Nott,  President,  story  of  boyhood,  202- 
203. 

Occamy,  88. 

Occupations,  of  children,  179,  180, 182, 

186,  437  ;  of  women,  187. 
Oiled  paper  for  windows,  23,  366. 
Old  South  Church,  on  sampler,  268. 
Old  Ship,  365. 
Old  South,  366. 
Opening  in  land,  clearing,  406. 
Ordinary,  name  for  tavern,  356. 
Osenbrigs,  288. 

Otis,  Hannah,  sampler  of,  268. 
Overhang,  in  walls,  19-20. 
Ovens,  67. 
Ox-bows,  311. 

Oxen,  sign  of  distress  in,  413. 
Oysters,   in  Brooklyn,   118-119;  in 
Virginia,  119;  vast  size  of,  119. 

Pace-weight,  of  loom,  224. 
Pack-horses,  use  of,  336-339 ;  pay  for, 

337 ;  load  of,  337"338- 
Pails,  early,  58. 
Paint,  not  used,  23. 
Pales.    See  Fences. 
Palfrey,  quoted,  122. 
Palisado,  description  of,  24. 
Pansy,  folk-names  of,  425-426. 
Paper-cutting.    See  Papyrotamia. 
Papyrotamia,  277-278. 
Parley,  Peter,  reminiscence  of,  140. 


Parsnips,  145. 

Pastorius,  Father,  his  choice  for  seal, 
181;  his  encouragement  of  garden- 
ing, 436. 

Patchwork.    See  Quilt-piecing. 

Patent,  first  to  Americans,  138-139, 
260. 

Pattens,  295. 

Paupers,  in  Narragansett,  313 ;  treat- 
ment of,  in  New  England,  324. 
Pawn,  55. 

Pawtucket,  cotton  thread  in,  207. 
Pay,  for  spinning,  185 ;  for  weaving, 

230,  250;  for  cow-herding,  399;  of 

swineherds,  403. 
Peabody,  Francis,  house  of,  31. 
Peachy,  163. 
Peas,  145. 
Peel,  67. 
Pegging,  262. 
Pelisses,  295. 

Penn,  William,  fairs  instituted  by,  190. 

Pennsylvania,  cave-dwellers  in,  2; 
stoves  in,  69;  squirrels  in,  no; 
wool  manufacture  in,  190;  dress  in, 
292-293;  mail  in,  333;  post-rider, 
335;  transportation  in,  335-344; 
roads  in,  339;  turnpikes  in,  349; 
coaching  in,  350-351;  metzel-soup 
in,  419;  gardens  in, 436-437. 

Peonies,  421. 

Perfumes,  in  cooking,  152;  of  old 
garden  flowers,  424;  of  sweet-scented 
leaves,  449  et  seq. 

Periagua,  329. 

Perry,  163. 

Peter,  Hugh,  encourages  fisheries,  121. 

Petticoat  rebellion,  128. 

Petunias,  428. 

Pews,  described,  368  et  seq. 

Pewter,  for  lamps.  44-45;  for  utensils, 

84-85  ;  on  dresser,  68  ;  lids  of,  100. 
Phcebe-lamps,  44. 

Philadelphia,  early  houses  in,  15  ;  luxu- 
rious dinners  in,  160;  straw  manu- 
facture in,  260  ;  travel  from,  347-350; 


4 


464 


Index 


taverns  in,  359 ;  cow-herding  in,  400- 
401. 

Pickling,  old-time,  152. 
Pierce  Garrison  House,  26. 
Pierpont,  Rev.  John,  verses  of,  306-307. 
Pies,  146. 

Pigeons,  plenty  of,  no;  price  of,  no. 
Pilgrims,  starvation  of,  129. 
Piling-bee,  406. 
Pillions,  331-332. 
Pillory,  location  of,  367. 
Pinckney,  Mrs.,  exchange  of  flowers  of, 
439- 

Pinehurst,  hand-weaving  in,  250-251. 

Pine-knots,  use  of,  32-33. 

Pink,  name  of  vessel,  328. 

Pinks,  varieties  of,  427. 

Pipe  shelves,  68. 

Pipe-tongs,  68-69. 

Pitch-pipes,  in  meeting,  378. 

Plantain,  romance  of,  435-436. 

Plate-racks,  68. 

Plate-warmer,  61. 

Plymouth,  vacant  fields  at,  130;  sam- 
pler at,  266. 
Pokeberry,  as  dye,  193. 
Pompion.    See  Pumpkin. 
Pones,  134. 
Pop-corn,  135. 
Poplar  wood,  use  of,  81-82. 
Porcelain.    See  China. 
Porringers,  85-86. 
Porter's  fluid,  45. 
Portsmouth,  old  house  at,  21. 
Portulaca,  429. 
Posnet,  87. 

Possing,  of  linen,  234. 

Post,  first,  332;  duties  0^332-333;  in 

Virginia,  333  ;  report  about,  333-335. 
Potatoes,  in  New  England,  144;  queer 

modes  of  cooking,  144-145.  See 

Sweet  potatoes. 
Potato-boiler,  57. 
Pot-brakes,  53. 
Pot-clips,  53. 
Pot-crooks,  53. 


Pot-hangers,  53. 
Pothooks,  53. 

Pots,  cost  of,  56 ;  size  of,  56. 
Pound-keepers,  400. 
Powder-horns,  320-321. 
Powdering  of  hair,  297. 
Powdering  tub,  153. 
Power-loom,  230. 

Powhatan,  teaches  corn-planting,  127. 
Prairie-schooner.       See  Conestoga 
wagon. 

Prayers,  length  of,  376;  with  the  sick, 
419. 

Preserving,  old-time,  152. 

Printer,  dress  of,  293. 

Providence,  straw  manufacture  in,  260 ; 

restrictions  in,  392. 
Psalm-singing,  376  et  seq. 
Puddings,  of  corn,  135. 
Pudding-time,  104,  160. 
Pue.    See  Pews. 
Pulling  of  flax,  168. 
Pulpits,  368,  385. 

Pumpkin,  tributes  to,  143 ;  modes  of 
cooking,  143  ;  their  plenty,  143  ;  shells 
of,  309. 

Puncheon  floor,  6. 

Quakers,  dress  of,  258,  292. 
Quarels,  of  glass,  9. 
Quarnes,  133. 
Quiddonies,  152. 

Quills,  for  weaving,  216 ;  from  geese, 
259. 

Quilling-wheel,  216,  229. 

Quilts,  piecing  of,  270-275 ;  materials 

for,  272-274;  patterns  for,  272-275; 

quilting  of,  273-274. 
Quince  drink,  96. 

Quincy  family,   fire-buckets   of,  18; 

samplers  of,  266-267. 
Quincy,  Josiah,  quoted,  341-342,  346. 

Raddle,  of  loom,  219. 
Rag  carpet,  239-240. 
Rail-fence,  25. 


Index 


465 


Raising,  of  a  house,  408  et  seq. 

Rake.    See  Raddle. 

Ramsay,  quoted,  395-396. 

Randolph,  John,  quoted,  205. 

Raspberry  leaves  for  tea,  158,  165. 

Rattle-watch,  362. 

Ravel.    See  Raddle. 

Reading,  communal  privileges  in,  391. 

Recons,  53. 

Reed.    See  Sley. 

Reed-hook.    See  Sley-hook. 

Reel,  triple,  200.    See  Clock-reel  and 

Niddv-noddy. 
Revolution,  influences  towards  success, 

166-167,  189. 
Rhode  Island,  stage-coach  in,  346. 
Rhode  Island  College.     See  Brown 

University. 
Ribbon-beds,  445. 
Ribbon-grass,  430. 
Ride-and-tie  system,  332. 
Rings,  wearing  of,  297 ;  at  funerals, 

298. 

Rippling  of  flax,  168-169;  of  hemp, 
169. 

Rippling-comb,  168  ;  of  Egyptians,  178. 
Roasting  ears,  134. 
Roasting-kitchens,  65. 
Rock  for  spinning,  in  Egypt,  178 ;  in 

India,  178 ;  in  New  England,  179. 
Rock-candy,  157. 
Rocking-tree,  of  loom,  220. 
Rochester,  house-raising  at,  410. 
Rolliches,  154. 
Rolling-roads,  330. 
Rolling-up  a  house,  6. 
Roof,  of  Dutch  houses,  10;  gambrel, 

22. 

Roquelaure,  295. 

Rosselini,  quoted,  178. 

Roving,  of  yarn,  201. 

Rowley,  spinning  match  at,  184. 

Ruffler  for  flax,  172. 

Rum,  manufacture  of,  163 ;  in  New 
England,  163 ;  in  slave-trade,  163- 
164 ;  at  house-raisings,  410. 

2  H 


Rush,  for  scouring,  85. 
Rushlight,  38. 

Rutland,  cave-dwellers  in,  3. 

Sabba-day  house.    See  Noon-house. 
Sabin  Hall,  14. 
Sack,  law  of  sale,  357. 
Sacjes,  386-387. 

Saco,  communal  privileges  in,  390. 
Safeguards,  295. 

Salem,  coloring  houses  at,  23 ;  lob- 
sters at,  117;  fisheries  at,  121;  milk 
in,  148 ;  sumptuary  laws  in,  283 ; 
taverns  at,  356-357 ;  night-watch  in, 
363;  meeting-house  in,  364;  seats 
for  boys  at  meeting  in,  372 ;  swine- 
herds in,  403. 

Saler,  78. 

Salisbury,  meeting-house  at,  369. 

Salmon,  price  in  Boston,  123 ;  low  re- 
gard of,  123  ;  fishing  for,  124. 

Salt-cellar,  78-79. 

Salting  of  fish,  124;  of  meat,  153. 

Samp,  mode  of  preparing,  131-132, 
134;  porridge  of,  134. 

Samplers,  265-268. 

Samp-mills,  133. 

Samp-mortars,  133. 

Sap-buckets,  112. 

Sap-yoke,  113. 

Sassafras,  as  dye,  194;  for  soap,  255. 
Sausages,  making  of,  154-155. 
Sausage-gun,  154. 
Save-alls,  42. 

Scaffold,  name  for  pulpit,  368. 

Scarne.    See  Skarne. 

Sconces,  42. 

Scouring-rush,  85. 

Scutching.    See  Swingling. 

Scythe  snathe,  309-312. 

Seal  of  Germantown,  181. 

Seating  the  meeting,  370-371. 

Seats,  at  table,  101 ;  in  New  England 
meetings,  369 ;  in  Virginia  churches, 
383-384 ;  in  Dutch  churches,  386- 

387. 


466 


Index 


Section.  See  Bout. 

Sedan-chairs,  356. 

Sermons,  length  of,  376. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  quoted,  354-356; 
character  of,  418. 

Shad,  low  regard  of,  123-124;  price 
of,  124;  fishing  for,  124;  salting  of, 
124. 

Shallop,  328, 

Shed,  in  weaving,  221. 

Sheep,  in  Massachusetts,  188;  laws 
about,  188,  189;  herding  of,  409. 

Sheep-folds,  401. 

Sheep-herds,  401. 

Sheep-ranges,  401. 

Shelburne,  girls  work  in,  262. 

Shepster,  187. 

Sherry-vallies,  296. 

Shingles,  making  of,  316-317. 

Shingle-bolts,  318. 

Shingle-mould,  317. 

Shoe-pegs,  3i5-3l6- 

Shuttles,  for  loom,  224-225. 

Sign-boards,  name  on,  358-359;  his- 
torical value  of,  359;  of  Philadel- 
phia, 359  ;  of  Baltimore,  359. 

Sigourney,  Mrs.,  quoted,  277-278. 

Silk-grass,  211. 

Silver,  use  of,  89-92. 

Skarne,  216-217. 

Skeins,  of  flax  thread,  175. 

Skillet,  50. 

Skilts,  236. 

Slave-kitchen,  54. 

Slave  quarters,  14. 

Slavery,  in  New  England,  163 ;  in  Vir- 
ginia, 164. 
Sleds,  343. 

Sleighs,  in  New  York,  355. 

Sley,  of  loom,  219-220;  price  of,  224. 

Slice,  67. 

Slippings,  of  flax  thread,  175. 

Smith,  John,  quoted,  115-116;  plants 
corn,  127 ;  description  of  first  Vir- 
ginia church, 381-382. 

Smoke-house,  153. 


Smoke-jack,  65. 

Smoking  tongs,  68-69. 

Snake-fence,  25. 

Sneak-cups,  106. 

Snow,  name  of  vessel,  328. 

Snowstorm,  in  New  England,  410  etseg. 

Snuffers,  42. 

Snuffers  tray,  42. 

Soap,  making  of,  253-255. 

Society  house,  396. 

Sorrel,  as  dye,  194. 

South  Carolina.    See  Carolinas. 

Southernwood,  428. 

Spatter-dashes,  296. 

Spelling,  varied,  of  squashes,  144. 

Spenser,  quoted,  319. 

Spermaceti,  42. 

Spices,  in   cooking,  153 ;   ground  at 

home,  158. 
Spice-mills,  158. 
Spice-mortars,  158. 

Spinning,  of  flax,  174,  230;  pay  for, 
175;  in  Egypt,  178;  in  India,  178; 
in  New  England,  179-180;  in  Penn- 
sylvania, 181;  in  France,  230-231; 
day's  work  in,  185  ;  in  modern  times, 
186;  of  wool,  196-198,  229-230 ;  new 
materials  for,  211;  race  between 
weaving  and,  228-229;  a  by-indus- 
try, 228. 

Spinning  classes,  180. 

Spinning-cup,  174. 

Spinning-jenny,  229. 

Spinning-matches,  184-185. 

Spinning-school,  180,  182. 

Spinning-wheel.  See  Flax-wheel  and 
Wool-wheel. 

Spinster,  legal  title  of  women,  187. 

Splint  brooms.    See  Birch  brooms. 

Spool-holder.    See  Skarne. 

Spoons,  use  of,  87 ;  material  of,  87-88  ; 
types  of,  89-90. 

Spoon-moulds,  87-88. 

Spoon-racks,  68. 

Spreading  of  flax,  168. 

Spunks,  50. 


Index 


467 


Squadrons,  of  spinners,  189. 

Squanto,  teaches  fishing,  117;  teaches 

corn-planting,  130. 
Squashes,  varied  names  of,  144. 
Squirrels,  abundance  of,  no ;  premium 

on,  no. 

Stage-coaches,  in  Great  Britain,  331, 
345-346;  in  America,  345-346. 

Stage-wagon,  345. 

Staircases,  27. 

Standing  salt,  78-79. 

Standish,  Lorea,  sampler  of,  266. 

Starting  a  fire,  48-50. 

Starving  times,  in  Virginia,  127 ;  in 
New  England,  129. 

Staves,  316. 

Stays,  291. 

Steeples,  366. 

Steep-pool,  for  flax,  169. 

Stepping-stones.    See  Horse-blocks. 

Stitches,  names  of,  264-265. 

St.-John's-Wort,  as  dye,  194. 

Stockings,  knitting  of,  190,  262-263 ; 
weaving  of,  190. 

Stocks,  location  of,  367. 

Stone-bee,  407. 

Stone-hauling,  407. 

Stone  walls,  407. 

Stoves,  first,  69 ;  in  Dutch  churches,  385. 

Strachey,  quoted,  119. 

Strangers,  harboring  of,  forbidden  in 

New  England,  393-394. 
Stratford,  tithing-man  in,  372. 
Straw  manufacture,  259-261. 
Streets,  condition  of,  362 ;  lighting  of, 

362;  washing  of,  363. 
Strikes,  of  flax,  172. 
Striking  a  light,  47. 
Stump-pulling,  407. 

Sturgeon,  great  catch  of,  120 ;  in  New 

York,  120. 
Substitutes  for  imported  foods,  158-159. 
Succotash,  134. 
Sudbury,  tavern  at,  357-358. 
Sugar,  substitutes  for,  no,  in,  147, 

157,  158 ;  cutting  of,  i55-!56. 


Sugar-bowls,  names  for,  106. 
Sugar-cones,  155. 
Sugar-cutters,  155-156. 
Summer-piece,  8. 

Sunday,  observance  of,  by  Puritans, 
378  et  seq. ;  by  Rev.  John  Cotton, 
379;  by  Virginians,  380;  by  the 
Dutch,  384 ;  duration  of,  379. 

Sun-dials,  299,  442-443 ;  inscriptions 
on,  443  ;  materials  of,  443. 

Suppawn,  use  of,  133. 

Sweep  and  mortar  mill,  132. 

Sweet  potatoes,  modes  of  cooking,  145. 

Swifts,  215-216. 

Swineherds.    See  Hog-reeves. 
Swingling  of  flax,  171-172. 
Swingling  block,  171. 
Swingling  knives,  171,  312. 
Swingle-tree  hurds,  172. 
Swingling  tow,  bonfires  of,  177. 
Swing-sign.    See  Sign-board. 

Table,  description  of,  76. 

Table-board,  76,  81. 

Table-cloths,  77. 

Tallow,  lack  of,  34. 

Tambour  work,  269. 

Tankards,  original  meaning,  83 ;  of 
wood,  83-84 ;  of  silver,  99. 

Tapping-gauge,  112. 

Tape-loom,  various  names  of,  225  ;  de- 
scribed, 225-227. 

Tap-room,  of  Wayside  Inn,  357-358. 

Tarboggin.    See  Chebobbin. 

Tar-making,  33. 

Taste  of  a  dinner,  418. 

Tasters,  86-87. 

Taverns,  establishment  of,  356 ;  titles 
for,  356 ;  prices  at,  357  ;  values  about, 
357 ;  names  of  rooms  at,  357 ;  in 
southern  colonies,  360;  in  New 
Netherland,  361. 

Tea,  substitutes  for,  158-159 ;  first  sales 
of,  164 ;  queer  mode  of  cooking,  165. 

Teazels,  232. 

Teazeling,  of  cloth,  232. 


468 


Index 


Temperature,  of  houses,  70-71;  of 

churches,  374. 
Temple,  of  loom,  223. 
Tennessee,  hand-weaving  in,  249. 
Tenting,  of  cloth,  232. 
Terbobbin.    See  Chebobbin. 
Terrapin,  120. 
Thatch,  for  roofs,  15. 
Threshing,  313-314- 
Thumbing,  in  weaving,  218. 
Thumb-rings,  298. 
Tin,  slight  use  of,  58. 
Tinder,  48. 
Tinder-box,  48. 
Tinder-mill,  50. 
Tinder-wheel,  49. 
Tithing-men,  372,  373. 
Titles,  old-time,  for  women,  187. 
Toasting-forks,  60. 

Tobacco,  as  currency,  189 ;  use  forbid- 
den near  meeting-house,  379. 
Tomble.    See  Temple. 
Tongs,  236. 

Tow,  garments  of,  235-236. 
Town,  unit  in  New  England,  390;  nar- 
row feeling  of,  391. 
Townsend,  revolutionary  story  of,  203. 
Toys,  of  wood,  306. 
Trammels,  53. 

Transportation,  on  horseback,  176,  336 
et  seq. ;  by  wagons,  339  et  seq. 

Trees,  girdling  of,  403 ;  drive  of,  404 ; 
under-cutting  of,  404. 

Trenchers,  description,  80;  material, 
82. 

Trivets,  60. 

Troughs,  making  of,  311. 
Trumbull,  Jonathan,  chaise  of,  353. 
Trunks,  348. 
Trunk  pedler,  300. 
Tumble.    See  Temple. 
Tummings,  195. 

Turkeys,  wild,  109;  size  of,  109-110; 

price  of,  no. 
Turkey  wheat,  129.    See  Corn. 
Turkey-wings,  309. 


Turnips,  145. 
Turnpikes,  349-350. 
Turnspit  dog,  65. 

Tusser,  Thomas,  quoted,  35,  168,  255, 

321-322. 
Twifflers,  106. 

Van  der  Donck,  quoted,  118,  119,  120. 

Van  Tienhoven,  quoted,  2. 

Veils,  interference  about,  285. 

Venison.    See  Deer. 

Vermont,  candle-wood  in,  32;  broom- 
making  in,  303. 

Victualling,  name  for  tavern,  356. 

Violins,  in  meeting,  378. 

Virginia,  early  houses  in,  11 ;  palisados 
in,'24 ;  candle-wood  in,  32 ;  first  fork 
in,  78 ;  silver  in,  91 ;  table  furnish- 
ings in,  104;  deer  in,  108-109;  birds 
and  fowl  in,  no;  lobsters  in,  118; 
crabs  in,  118 ;  oysters  in,  119 ;  plenty 
of  fish  in,  118-119;  corn  m»  I27i 
massacre  in,  127;  windmills  in,  133; 
toll  in,  133 ;  starvation  in,  127,  144 ; 
pumpkins  in,  143 ;  locust  groves  in, 
163;  flax  culture  in,  181-182;  wool 
culture  in,  189-190;  cloths  in,  237; 
broom-corn  in,  256 ;  sumptuary  laws 
in,  285  ;  outfit  of  settlers,  289 ;  roads 
in,  331 ;  taverns  in,  361 ;  Sunday  ob- 
servance in,  380 ;  churches  in,  381- 
382 ;  cows  in,  400 ;  fences  in,  402. 

Virginia  fence,  25. 

Voiders,  106-107. 

Voorleezer,  duties  of,  386. 

Waffle-irons,  61. 

Wagon.    See  Conestoga  wagon. 

Warming-pans,  72. 

Warning  out,  392 ;  a  mystery  in,  393. 

Warp,  218. 

Warp-beam,  214. 

Warping,  217-218. 

Warping-bars,  217-218. 

Warping-needle,  219. 

Warp-threads.   See  Warp. 


Index 


469 


Washing,  domestic,  255. 

Washington,  George,  home  of,  13;  out- 
fit of  his  stepdaughter,  291;  dress  of, 
293  ;  as  canal  promoter,  353. 

Washington,  Martha,  thrift  of,  237-238 ; 
netting  of,  265. 

Watches,  299. 

Watch-chains,  263. 

Water,  as  beverage,  147. 

Watering  of  flax,  169. 

Water-fowl,  plenty  of,  125  ;  enumerated, 
125. 

Watertown,  windmill  at,  133 ;  restric- 
tions of  settlement  in,  393. 
Wax,  candles  of,  37;  bayberry,  39-40. 
Waynesville,  hand-weaving  in,  250. 
Wayside  Inn,  357~358- 
Weather-skirt,  295. 

Weavers,  status  of,  212-213;  seat  °f» 
221 ;  working-hours  of,  228 ;  in  Nar- 
ragansett,  241-244. 

Weaving,  noise  of,  212,  220;  three 
motions  in,  221-222;  disappearance 
of,  227;  on  tape-looms,  225-227; 
race  between  spinning  and,  228-230 ; 
of  linens,  230-231 ;  of  rag-carpet, 
239-240 ;  of  coverlets,  242-246 ;  dur- 
ing Civil  War,  249.    See  Loom. 

Weaving-room.    See  Loom-room. 

Webster,  187. 

Weeds,  once  garden  flowers,  435-436, 
447-449. 

Weight-timbers,  11. 

Weld,  quoted,  348-349. 

Well-sweep,  443-444. 

Westmoreland  Revival,  227. 

Whale-fishing,  41. 

'•Whang/'  417. 

Wheat,  planting  of,  147. 

Wheel.  See  Flax-wheel  and  Wool- 
wheel. 

Wheel-peg,  198. 

Wheelwrights,  early  use  of  wood,  176. 
Whipping-post,  location  of,  367. 
White-Ellery  House,  19. 
White-weed,  in  America,  449. 


Whitney,  Eli,  invention  of,  208. 
Whittemore,  Amos,  invention  of,  205. 
Whittier,  quoted,  73"74»  18 L  37°.  4X3, 

436 ;  homespun  attire  of,  248. 
Whittling,  321-323. 
Wicks  for  candles,  34,  45. 
Wigs,  wearing  of,  296-297 ;  denounced, 

296;   names  of,  296-299;    cost  of, 

297. 
Wigwams,  3. 

William  and  Mary  College,  tax  for, 
109. 

Williams,  Roger,  quoted,  134,  137,285. 
Windmills,  Indian  fear  of,  130;  first 

erected,   133 ;    of  John  Winthrop, 

133 ;  in  Virginia,  133. 
Windows,  of  glass,  23 ;  of  oiled  paper, 

23. 

Windsor,  boys'  pews  in,  372. 
Wine-taster,  87. 

Winslow  house,  knocker  of,  29. 

Winthrop,  John,  fork  of,  77 ;  jug  of, 
98 ;  his  use  of  water  as  beverage, 
148  ;  pick-a-back,  329 ;  sedan-chair 
of,  356. 

Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  quoted,  32;  mill 
of,  133- 

Woad-wax,  in  Massachusetts,  448. 

Woburn,  long  services  at,  376. 

Wolfskin  bags  in  meeting,  374. 

Wolves'  heads,  nailed  on  meeting- 
houses, 364-365. 

Wood,  trenchers  of,  80-81 ;  utensils  of, 
82  ;  spoons  of,  88  ;  for  shuttles,  225  ; 
unusual  uses  of,  305;  toys  of,  306; 
natural  shapes  in,  308-311. 

Wood,  quoted,  32-33,  137. 

Wool,  an  ancient  industry,  187;  early 
culture  of,  187-193 ;  manufacture  of, 
187-193;  restraints  on  manufacture, 
191-192;  in  England,  192;  prepara- 
tion of,  193;  dyeing  of,  193-194; 
carding  of,  194-195 ;  combing  of, 
196 ;  spinning  of,  196-198.  See  Yarn. 

Wool-cards,  described,  194-195;  his- 
tory of,  204-206. 


47° 


Index 


Wool-combs,  196. 
Wool-wheel,  price  of,  177. 
Wordsworth,  quoted,  on  spinning,  179. 
Worsted  stuffs,  233. 
Wrathe.    See  Raddle. 


Yarn,  spinning  of,  197-198,  201,  229; 

winding  of,  198 ;  skeining  of,  199 ; 

cleansing  of,  202 ;  water-twist,  229. 
Yarn  beam.    See  Warp-beam. 
Yarn  roll.    See  Warp-beam. 


n 


STORIES  FROM  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


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YANKEE  SHIPS  AND  YANKEE  SAILORS 

TALES  OF  1812 

By  JAMES  BARNES 

Illustrated  by  R.  F.  Zogbaum  and  C.  T.  Chapman. 

**  Mr.  Barnes  knows  how  to  tell  a  story  as  well  as  how  to  write  history.    His  style  is  terse  anc 
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TALES  OF  THE  ENCHANTED  ISLES  OF  THE  ATLANTIC 

By  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 

Illustrated  by  Albert  Herter. 

"No  national  history  has  been  less  prosaic  in  its  earlier  traditions,"  says  Colonel  Higginson, 
who  relates  in  a  manner  which  shows  strong  sympathy  and  learned  research  these  wonderful 
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By  GRACE  KING 

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A  story  based  upon  Spanish  and  Portuguese  accounts  of  "  Conquest "  by  the  brilliant  armada 
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By  FRANK  R.  STOCKTON 

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Spanish  exactions  grew  so  monstrous  in  the  seventeenth  century  that  English,  French,  and 
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THE  STORY  OF  OLD  FORT  LOUDON 
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